RE: questions about XSLT philosophy: how much is too

On Thu, 20 Mar 2003, Michael Kay wrote:

> But surely a newcomer to any language should be surprised and delighted
> to discover the unexpected ways that experienced users are exploiting
> the technology?

not really -- not when i'm trying to learn how to use it properly for
the first time.

part of what makes a language easily learned is to see it being
used in a way that seems to match its basic design.  with XSLT,
that's to see it used functionally.  nothing makes a language 
harder to get a grip on than to see it being manhandled to solve
problems that don't seem "natural" for that language.

many years ago, when C++ was still fairly new, the biggest
gripe many had about it was that, although they were using
the C++ language, they were still coding using C style.

i have no objection to seeing how XSLT can be used in
interesting and unexpected ways.  but i'd rather hold off
on that until i have a handle on the normal usage of it
first, that's all.

rday


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