Query Languages for XML

[Derek Denny-Brown]

At 12:01 AM 11/20/97, Peter Murray-Rust wrote:
>The XSL/HTML4.0 looks an exciting place to start from (which I had
>overlooked). It would seem to be the most appropriate way to think about
>forms in XML (rather than developing them from scratch)
>
>Currently XSL (IMO) seems to derive almost entirely from a paper based
>metaphor. Although 'screen' is mentioned (just) under SCROLL flowobjects,
>these are little more than inanimate chunks of pixels. XML does not address
>how to add buttons, etc. This *could* be done by ECMAScript, I suppose, but
>it starts to look a bit kludgy.
>
>I am much more concerned with the potential interactive properties of XSL
>than laying out text to the nearest micron. I am not disparaging that -
>it's very important - but it seems to be the main philosophy behind XSL.
>I'd like to see an interactive component built in.

I think there is some real potential for an extension to XSL to allow
something akin to Microsoft's dHTML (dynamic HTML).  I am not sure that it
should neccessarily be in XSL 1.0, and it could be really hairy if people
are using XSL-grove interface to the XML and DOM interface to the output.
I have not quite figured out how to factor in DOM into XSL without making
things really confusing...

But, I tend to agree, XSL allow people to get to Netscape 3.0/IE 3.0 level
from XML, but not the full "4.0" range that people are (justifiably) going
wild over. 

-derek


     Derek E. Denny-Brown II      ||   ddb at criinc.com
     "Reality is that which,      ||   Seattle, WA USA
  when you stop believing in it,  ||  WWW/SGML/HyTime/XML
 doesn't go away."  -- P. K. Dick || Java/Perl/Scheme/C/C++

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