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Re: XSLT syntax (was: Re: What niche is XQuery targeting?)

• To: xml-dev@l...
• Subject: Re: XSLT syntax (was: Re: What niche is XQuery targeting?)
• From: Vladimir Gapeyev <vgapeyev@s...>
• Date: Wed, 8 Dec 2004 19:10:15 -0500 (EST)
• In-reply-to: <cp7o9k$29g$1@s...>
• References: <A3ACB376-48E0-11D9-85AB-000393DC762C@m...><E1CbyBV-0007Wy-00@u...> <cp7o9k$29g$1@s...>

So, according to the previous posts, there are valid reasons for having
XML-based XSLT syntax, and for having a more humane variant.

Question: why can't this be the case, so that we enjoy the benefits of
both?  I.e. why can't we have two isomorphic syntaxes for XSLT, both
blessed by a standards body --- similar to the two syntaxes for RelaxNG.
(The blessing is important -- I've heard about enthusiasts attempting
this, but what are their chances of reaching wide adoption?)

Here are a few guesses why:

(1) There are known strong technical reasons such a human-readable syntax
is problematic.  (E.g. we cannot guarantee having non-lossy translations
back and forth, even for "a majority" of stylesheets.)

(2) Defining a human-readable syntax is too much work (even if starting
from a contributed draft proposal), and W3C didn't feel enough pressure to
charter a WG for this.

(3) The pressure on W3C is nowhere to come from: the overwhelming majority
of XML programmers couldn't care less.

Is any of the guesses valid?  Do I miss another possible explanation?

(I personally hope (2) is the strongest reason...)

Vladimir

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: XSLT syntax (was: Re: What niche is XQuerytargeting?)
    • From: Dave Pawson <davep@d...>
  • Re: XSLT syntax (was: Re: What niche is XQuery targeting?)
    • From: Michael Champion <michaelc.champion@g...>
  • Re: XSLT syntax (was: Re: What niche is XQuery targeting?)
    • From: "Nathan Young" <natyoung@c...>

• References:
  • Re: What niche is XQuery targeting?
    • From: Daniela Florescu <dflorescu@m...>
  • RE: What niche is XQuery targeting?
    • From: "Michael Kay" <mike@s...>
  • Re: What niche is XQuery targeting?
    • From: "Dimitre Novatchev" <dnovatchev@y...>

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