Re: A beef with XSLT Sometimes too complicated

I think we'll be using our aesthetic sense -- what looks right,
assessing clarity and concision in the usual way -- until we have
enough experience to derive some rules of thumb.

While I completely agree with Wendell on this, let me point out that
it is not only a matter of aesthetic preference. XSLT is just a little
bit more expressive -- one example where I cannot use XPath only is
when I need to define a variable as a sequence:

--
Cheers,
Dimitre Novatchev
---------------------------------------
Truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence.

At 05:16 AM 7/14/2006, Nic wrote:
> >> Is there a cleaner / simpler way to do this?  Any chance you can do
> >> this in one line?
> >
> > In xslt2:
> >
> > <xsl:variable name="bg_img" select="if(normalize-space($all_vars))
> >  then 'background_bright' else 'background_faded'"/>
>
>I hate the idea of 2 'if's in a language.
>
>IMHO that makes it even more complicated.

In the past it's been asked whether we should prefer our logic in the
XPath or in the XSLT, or if in either/both, how to strike the balance.

IIRC it was Dimitre who asked, and Mike gave a characteristically
thoughtful answer, but no reliable principle has emerged.

I think we'll be using our aesthetic sense -- what looks right,
assessing clarity and concision in the usual way -- until we have
enough experience to derive some rules of thumb.

In any case it's going to be fun to see what kind of programming
styles emerge in 2.0.

Cheers,
Wendell