Re: stylesheets for stylesheets (was Re: Swapping table rows

James Tauber <jtauber@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>What they should do is write Knuthian WEB-like XML document that, upon
>application of one stylesheet, produces the desired stylesheet and upon
>application of another stylesheet produces documentation of that
stylesheet.


I wonder how applicable that would be outside of writing XSL stylesheets -
that is, using XML/XSL as a basis for a general "literate programming"
environment. Current literate programming systems maintain what is
essentially a set of documents with markups, which they transform in various
ways; switching to XML/XSL might have advantages, especially if/when XML
"databases" become popular. I like the notion of a common DTD for literate
programming systems, which would allow a "components" market - and using
XPointer/XLink for cross references would be very nice, and map well to
browsers - and being able to generate all sorts of  reports - and supporting
multiple output formats, including HTML/JavaScript combinations for
intelligent viewing of the system in a browser - OK, it seems like a good
idea overall, but there would be tons of work involved.

I'm also posting this to comp.programming.literate, they'd probably be
interested in the notion. Maybe one of the implementers of an existing
system would consider making the switch to XML. I wish I had the time to
investigate this on my own...

Share & Enjoy,

    Oren Ben-Kiki


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