RE: XSLT model not "natural"? [was Re: [ANN] FreeMarke

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Subject: RE: XSLT model not "natural"? [was Re: [ANN] FreeMarker 2.3 as an alternative to XSLT]
From: Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2003 18:46:48 -0400

At 05:42 PM 6/27/2003, Mike wrote (about learning XSLT):

I went up this learning curve myself about 4-5 years ago. I didn't find
it easy. I never do find new concepts easy. I struggled when I first
learnt SQL, when I learnt goto-less programming, when I learnt
object-oriented programming - I even remember struggling the first time
I had to understand subroutines. But each time, I've got to the top of
the hill and never looked back. It's worth the climb.

I should add that I also found it challenging -- but fun, and hence, for all its challenges (I remember a fever-dream I had in which I climbed around inside a node set until I'd figured out how to write a table-driven generalized node-renaming transform) -- easy.

And I was lucky. I had the expert guidance of a sophisticated private tutor (my erstwhile colleague, Tony Graham), had some DSSSL experience (you think XSLT is hard to get your head around, you should try DSSSL!), but never had learned Pascal.

The bottom line is, a great deal depends, as when learning anything new, on your attitude going in. If you dread the prospect, it'll be hard. If you expect to have fun learning how to get things done with a powerful new instrument, it'll be easy. It's in the context of this awareness that I get bugged by all the claims of how hard XSLT is: that only becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, for those unwary enough to believe it.

Cheers,
Wendell


======================================================================
Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                http://www.mulberrytech.com
17 West Jefferson Street                    Direct Phone: 301/315-9635
Suite 207                                          Phone: 301/315-9631
Rockville, MD  20850                                 Fax: 301/315-8285
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  Mulberry Technologies: A Consultancy Specializing in SGML and XML
======================================================================

XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list

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