[XSL-LIST Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: Diagramming XSLT
Thanks everyone for your ideas and advice. Definitely a lot to think about. My task is to explain how one specific XSL-FO transform works with the goal of modifying it to change its output. As Wendell pointed out, a huge challenge will be figuring out what level to engage the audience at, and how to fit everything within my 45-minute time limit. I just won't have time to teach XSLT itself to people who aren't already familiar, but if any of those wander in, maybe I can convince them to learn. I'll have to try the approach Jim wrote about in the future, even though it doesn't really apply here. I was definitely one of those people who had trouble discarding their imperative-programming mindset when I was learning XSLT. I don't know if it's because imperative programming is inherently easier to construct mental models of, or because it's just what everyone is first exposed to. It's certainly easier to diagram. Now the declarative way of thinking is second nature for me (at least until I try to do something very recursive, or diagram it, apparently). Whenever I've taught XSLT the hardest part is getting people to escape that imperative-programming mindset. That always takes a while, and until that "aha" moment, they can't really "get" XSLT. I really like the Oxygen debugging mode idea. I'm going to experiment with that. That, coupled with a big-picture flowchart (root template -> apply mode #1 templates and store nodeset in variable -> apply mode #2 templates to variable, etc.) might do the trick. My approach for the talk itself is to spend my time on a general overview, showing what is possible, and save the messier details and code samples for a handout. If I can point out a few lesser-known XSL techniques and get people thinking, I've done my job. If any of you are at PTC/User this June, you're welcome to come by my talk ("Hacking the Styler XSL-FO Stylesheet") and see how well I succeed or fail. Thanks, -James ----- James Sulak Electronic Publishing Developer Jones McClure Publishing -----Original Message----- From: Lech Rzedzicki [mailto:xchaotic@xxxxxxxxx] Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2008 5:19 AM To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Cc: csi2000@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Diagramming XSLT On Tue, Apr 8, 2008 at 9:32 PM, CyberSpace Industries 2000 Inc. <csi2000@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Short of this - I also have been musing on creating an animation showing a > similar thing to explain how the XSLT processor works. So far I haven't > found an animation tool that lets me create such an animation easilty. > [Suggestions?] > > Cheers..Hugh I come from a technical writing background and depending on what exactly you want to do, there's tons of tools for screen casts like Camtasia Studio, Captivate etc, but I dare say that Adobe/Macromedia Flash might be the best suit for your needs of animation. Creating animated movable content is really easy even for non-programmers - put a box somewhere, keyframe, move it somewhere, keyframe 15secs later and you 've got a nice animation of a moving box. For more complex stuff, sky's the limit. The advantage is that you can run .swf flash files via browser on any platform. Hope that helps, Lech
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