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help request: incremental XSLT(-ish?) in javascript

• From: Thomas Lord <lord@emf.net>
• To: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
• Date: Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:33:42 -0700

I am looking for a piece of software that I've
come to suspect doesn't exist - but I thought 
I'd ask here as one way to double check.

We are used to the idea of browsers receiving
XML, retrieving a linked XSLT program, and applying
that program to produce an HTML DOM for display.

I am wishing for taking that one step further.
I would like a client-side XSLT implementation
that does that transform, but that also keeps around
the XML.   I would like Javascript programs to be 
able to modify the XML DOM objects and to have those
changes *incrementally* reflected in updates to 
the HTML DOM.

I know that for arbitrary XSLT, such incremental 
transforms can not always be fast.   For example,
it is trivial to write an XSLT program such that a
single character change to a text datum in the XML
causes the HTML to have to be completely regenerated
from scratch.

I do hope for a solution where it is easy to write
a wide range of XSLT programs that *can* be updated
fast, incrementally.   That is to say: I want good
performance in the easy cases and don't care so much
how the hard cases are handled.

I would prefer XSLT but I suppose it is not essential.
Something similar but non-standard is OK, if that's all
there is.

Why do I want this?  Well:

I would like to build a system that roughly follows
a "model-view-controller" pattern.   The XML will 
serve as model.   The HTML and some event handling hooks
will serve as view.  The main logic of an application
are the commands (in Javascript) that the view can 
trigger and which operate by having side effects on
the XML (the model) - that "command system" of the 
application is the controller.

Is there such a piece of software around (that is
licensed as free software)?  My impression is that
there is not - which I find somewhat surprising.

Finally, one person I mentioned this to admonished me
that I was proposing to use XSLT and Javascript in ways
they were never intended for and were ill suited for.
I could not get a clear sense from him of *why* he 
thought so, but that is what he said.  Is he right?

Thanks,
-t

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: help request: incremental XSLT(-ish?) in javascript
    • From: Manos Batsis <manos_lists@geekologue.com>
  • Re: help request: incremental XSLT(-ish?) in javascript
    • From: Laurens van den Oever <laurens@xopus.com>
  • Re: help request: incremental XSLT(-ish?) in javascript
    • From: James Fuller <james.fuller.2007@gmail.com>