Re: Stylesheet vs. Transform

> I think the distinction between transformation and styling is bogus.

I agree. 

I would add that "transformation" is IMHO a misnomer anyway. If the
identity transformation (source=result) were the default, and the
stylesheet were an influence on this process, then yes, the source trees
are being transformed into the result tree. 

But as it stands, the XSLT process is much easier to understand if you
describe it as the creation of a new tree, *possibly* drawing upon
information in source trees during the process. The stylesheet defines a
tree that instructs the XSLT processor in a manner that directs part of
this process.

Also, XSLT is only for abstract tree transformation. Although it is
heavily XML document oriented, it is not necessary for the trees to be
derived from XML documents or for XML documents to be derived from them.

   - Mike
____________________________________________________________________
Mike J. Brown, software engineer at         My XML/XSL resources:
webb.net in Denver, Colorado, USA           http://www.skew.org/xml/


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