[XSL-LIST Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: <quote>XSL is NOT easy</quote>
At 03:18 PM 6/26/2007, Norias wrote:
At 1:01 PM -0400 6/26/07, Robert Koberg wrote: > no you haven't. you have defended XSL's ease of use. Norias, thanks (I owe you), but no apology is necessary. Robert is entitled to be wrong once in a while. I doubt that he intended the post to sound the way it came out. In this case, he's correct that I have defended XSLT's ease of use, while wrong about whether I've never remarked on why some find it difficult. (As you say, I've said many things on this list.) Nic said: I think XSLT is quite good for non-programmers, it's programmers with some experience of other things that find it really difficult I've found. I do agree with this. Nor is it inconsistent with my experience that XSLT "is" or "can be" easy. That XSLT is "basically easy" does not mean that everyone finds it so. That issue hinges on whether ease-of-use is an intrinsic property of the language, or something more subjective. In my experience (and I have plenty of experience teaching XSLT to all kinds of people), those who find it difficult are also those who are resistant to taking the language as it is, and instead insist on treating it as it (as they believe it) "should be". But that doesn't make the language intrinsically difficult any more than it means it's "actually" easy for them, but they don't know it. (I also think that just because XSLT is "basically easy" doesn't mean that it's equally good at everything, or that solving any problem with it, however intrinsically difficult or unsuited to it, will be easy.) Once I had a German professor (I mean, a Professor of German) who used to tell us "German is easy. In Germany, even the kids speak it fluently". Aren't search engines great? If you really care, check out what I said four years ago, in a different context: http://www.biglist.com/lists/xsl-list/archives/200306/msg01291.html It's not inconsistent with what I'm saying now. If anything has changed, it might be that I now have a bit more sympathy with those who find it (or anything) difficult. (About that, Robert is correct.) Mike said It's also true of course that many computer science graduates have a lot still to learn. I certainly did when I was a new graduate. I still have now, that's one of the things you learn.... And I was never as smart as I was when I was eighteen years old. Then I had it all figured out, but ever since I've been learning of more and more things about which I haven't the slightest clue. 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mulberry Technologies: A Consultancy Specializing in SGML and XML ======================================================================
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