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Re: Hello XQuery ... Goodbye XSLT?

• To: Jonathan Robie <jonathan.robie@d...>
• Subject: Re: Hello XQuery ... Goodbye XSLT?
• From: Liam Quin <liam@w...>
• Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2004 17:32:21 -0500
• Cc: xml-dev@l...
• In-reply-to: <41914255.30300@d...>
• References: <200411081326.iA8DQXR27673@s...> <e3a5cb2c041108065521cfce84@m...> <4190028D.6080409@z...> <419129DC.7020508@d...> <41912D6E.6080700@z...> <41914255.30300@d...>
• User-agent: Mutt/1.5.6+20040722i

On Tue, Nov 09, 2004 at 05:19:01PM -0500, Jonathan Robie wrote:
> I also think most programmers prefer a keyword syntax to an XML-based 
> syntax for everyday programming.

<response>
  <sentence>
    <interrogative>What?</interrogative>
  </sentence>
  <sentence>
    <interrogative>
      There are
      <nounphrase>types of discourse</nounphrase>
      for which
      <noun>XML</noun>
      is not the most comfortable
      <nounphrase>syntactic representation</nounphrase>?
    </interrogative>
  </sentence>
</response>

:-)

Stephen Pemberton has repeatedly raised the idea that sometimes it's
be more useful to define a mapping (e.g. as we're doing for
XQuery <-> XQueryX) so that people can work in a comfortable idiom
but can then join the happily family of XML users in a group cuddle,
using XML tools to manipulate their data / progams, and then
rewrite them if and as needed.

I think a good example might be the idea of an XML representation of
CSS -- one could use client-side XSLT in a Web browser to manipulate
a style sheet.

But in the comparison between XQuery and XSLT people are comparing the
non-XML textual representation of XQuery with XSLT.

I think it's better to emphasise that XQuery is designed for efficient
optimization to be possible for a different set of use cases than XSLT.
This applies both to human users -- some tasks are easier in one than
another -- and for implementations.

I don't want to use XSLT to identify all REPAIR-SEQUENCE elements with
a STEP element having a PREREQUISITE of part-no 1976 in a dozen
150,000-page aircraft manuals.  But this operation might be almost
instant with an XML Query implementation, and would be very easy.
(there are already multi-document implementations that use indexes
as Jonathan of course is aware, but many other xml-dev readers might
not know this)

Best,

Liam

-- 
Liam Quin, W3C XML Activity Lead, http://www.w3.org/People/Quin/
http://www.holoweb.net/~liam/

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Hello XQuery ... Goodbye XSLT?
    • From: Jonathan Robie <jonathan.robie@d...>

• References:
  • Hello XQuery ... Goodbye XSLT?
    • From: "Roger L. Costello" <costello@m...>
  • Re: Hello XQuery ... Goodbye XSLT?
    • From: Michael Champion <michaelc.champion@g...>
  • Re: Hello XQuery ... Goodbye XSLT?
    • From: Rick Marshall <rjm@z...>
  • Re: Hello XQuery ... Goodbye XSLT?
    • From: Jonathan Robie <jonathan.robie@d...>
  • Re: Hello XQuery ... Goodbye XSLT?
    • From: Rick Marshall <rjm@z...>
  • Re: Hello XQuery ... Goodbye XSLT?
    • From: Jonathan Robie <jonathan.robie@d...>

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