A weaker XSL?

[Paul Prescod]

Clark Evans wrote:
> 
> I'm not suggesting that the weakend XSL woudn't do any
> transformations, only that the transformations it does
> be based upon a stream rather than upon an object.

I have no problem with a weakened, transformational XSL for certain
stream-based applications. But you seem to think that such a thing could
be a replacement for XSL "as we know it." I don't believe that.

I have the following problems with your two-tier model: 

 * in general the HTML and PDF versions of a document will order and
organize things differently. Online navigation is quite different from
print navigation. So the part of the language that is "media specific"
must be essentially as powerful as the part that is not.

 * if the data has ALREADY been transformed then why isn't CSS "good
enough" for the second step?

 * people want the transformation part to take place on the client side in
order to distribute the processing load.

In applications where your model is sufficient, I think we already have
the languages in place to MAKE it work: XSL does the transformation and
CSS does simple style annotation.

 Paul Prescod  - ISOGEN Consulting Engineer speaking for only himself
 http://itrc.uwaterloo.ca/~papresco

"Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did,
but she did it backwards and in high heels."
                                               --Faith Whittlesey

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