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Re: Accessing a node name from within <xsl:attribute>
----- Original Message -----
From: Joshua Allen <joshuaa@microsoft.com>
> Mike Kay's book is a great beginner's guide and reference.
Small correction. Mike Kay's book is a great guide
and reference on XSLT.
> The first thing to establish, though, is that Mike Kay
> is definitely not the person to ask XSL questions regarding
> Microsoft. I think he has a filter set up that detects
> keywords like "IE5" or "Microsoft" and automatically
> spits out some form of "Microsoft sucks" without regard
> to the actual question asked.
I disagree with this diatribe ( even the humour is nice,
but I don't think this view is fair. )
> He was perfectly capable of answering your question, and
> would have answered it had you pretended to be using Saxon.
Instead of providing trivial answer to some particular question,
Michael provided the generalized pattern which will save
*MUCH* more time than any 'particular' answer could save.
Ideally, I think this list should have a FAQ posted here on
be-weekly basics and the FAQ should contain only one
statement <g> :
<FAQ>
OK. So you are selling to your client the nice
story which is: " we'l do that with XSLT on client
side ( MS IE allows that ) ".
There are 2 possible situations here:
a. You are experienced XSL developer and you know
what you are realy selling here ( what is the reliability of
rendering, what particular patch should be applied to
every client place e t.c.). In this case I doubt you'l ask any
question on this list with the words 'MS IE' - more likely
you already know the answer ( and for sure you have
Xt installed on the same box, right? ) It is better
to ask *you* some questions ( 'are you 1-3 months
contractor, right?' 'O, maybe you are an
employee / PR person working for some big company
which sells a new dream?' ( please don't get me wrong -
I don't think only MS sells the XML dream. Whatever. ).
b. You are realy novice who thinks that "MS IE has XSL".
In this case you should immediatly do what Michael
suggests you to do! ( I mean you should separate
hype from reality and install the second XSLT engine
today ;-) It could be Xt or SAXON ;-)
You have to. Otherwise you'l spend long hours finding
mythical bugs in your XSLT code. It is hard to find a
black cat in the dark room ( especially when there is
no cat at all ).
</FAQ>
I think that we should all say "Thank you" to Michael,
who is working as a smart FAQ server, because if he
stop his periodic and accurate work - somebody will
have to start doing exactly the same thing!
( Just imagine - I will start posting similiar things for the sake
of XSLT ! ;-) I think that such perspective looks scary enough ;-)
> He is also perfectly aware that IE5 shipped before the
> XSLT spec was finished and thus implements an older version
> of the spec. He is also aware that there have been many
> updates to XSLT support for IE5 available free for download
> at http://msdn.microsoft.com/xml. With the updated parser
> you can also download the newer SDK, which includes online
> references for XSLT/XPath and code samples.
Michael is doing 'the right thing' and he does it in very appropriate
fashion *exactly* because he knows all this stuff.
He should not be blamed for the mess MS created using MS
brainwashing machinery. People should be careful with
nuclear weapons... and media ...
Michael is minimizing the mess and he deserves only
'thank you' for his accurate efforts.
Rgds.Paul.
PS. BTW ... MS suxxx - you know?; -)
> Joshua Allen
> Microsoft eBusiness West Region
> "No challenge can withstand the assault of sustained thinking" - Voltaire
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Kay Michael [mailto:Michael.Kay@icl.com]
> > Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2000 10:18 AM
> > To: 'xsl-list@mulberrytech.com'
> > Subject: RE: Accessing a node name from within <xsl:attribute>
> >
> >
> > > I am new to XSL. I am looking into transforming XML into HTML
> > > using XSL for displaying in Internet Explorer 5.
> > > Can anyone help with this question please and/or point me in
> > > the direction of some good beginners guides to XSL?
> > >
> > First thing is to establish that you understand the
> > difference between the
> > W3C XSLT standard and Microsoft's 1998 dialect of XSL as
> > implemented in IE5.
> > Most of the people on this list are primarily interested in
> > the former. If
> > you want to (or are forced to) use the Microsoft dialect, be
> > aware that it's
> > very different and far less powerful a language.
> >
> > Mike Kay
> >
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