...
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Geoff Howard [mailto:cocoon@leverageweb.com]
> Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2003 10:37 AM
> To: cocoon-dev@xml.apache.org
> Subject: RE: [RT] the quest for the perfect template language
<snip/>
> Not trying to be cynical, just pointing out that it's not just
> making a good
> technology that's needed - it's making one that matters.
>
> Geoff
OK, I'm regretting sending that message - the tone is wrong and
I missed the point. Stefano was talking about a revolutionary
idea and I just said "hey, you're talking about a revolutionary
idea". He was asking why people weren't jumping in on it and I
wanted to explain why I wasn't and I think air a below the surface
concern I had, which is just that reinventing the wheel is an
"anti-pattern" - but then again so is continuing to drive on a flat
tire.
I'm not bothered much by the xml syntax and I still think some of the
points from my last message apply but I definitely resonate with the
other core problems.
How many of these problems would be solved by some combination of:
- Preprocessing xml to provide a structure more conducive to the
type of rule based processing that xslt excels at (like providing
count and position information). I wriggled my way out of several
tricky xsl programming issues by simply providing more information
coming out of the generator.
- Creating a flexible, reusable library of xsl template rules to
perform the most common but non-trivial tasks. Along these lines,
I have been needing a good crossbrowser dhtml menu implemented with
xslt and have found nothing, though there are many javascript-only
solutions. I'd much rather have the heavy lifting of creating the
menu structure performed (and cached) serverside but it's just so
easy to plug in the javascript only version.
Geoff
|