I think "under the hood" is important.. You don't necessarily see it doing
it!..

..Net does have XML classes that use XPATH and XSLT... It is in this regard
that I've come across both... XPath I can use, no problem, works every
time... XLST is just plain nasty to get working (IMHO). An the other hand
you don't have to use them to work with XML (though XPATH particular does
speed things up).

I've no problem with working with pre-written XLST translators, but I don't
feel comfortable with creating my own... I've seen XLST work very well in
some scenarios (such as converting RSS feeds to HTML) but it's just like
PROC - it works, but is it the best tool for the job all the time?

Regards
Simon


"Tedd Scofield" <tedd_scofield (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

Simon Verona wrote:
Yes, I have no concerns for what is used behind my interface to the
system (given that it performs as expected). The question is whether I
want to write or maintain such code.

Agreed. XPath is fine. It works with only one document at a time, so
it needed an extension. XQuery appears to be an extension to XPath
designed by committee, but I think I can live with it too once I get a
notion to use it.

Good deal -- there seems to be some consensus forming to back Tony up
on this one.

Correct.

The problem I have with my hesitation is that it seems to make such
sense. Perhaps nicely packaged xml to xhtml and rss to xhtml
translations make sense to use, but I haven't had to use it yet, and
will delay as long as I can.

And since I haven't had to use PROC yet either, maybe I can delay
indefinitely.
Cheers! --dawn

dawn wrote:
Aww, c'mon. You haven't lived 'til you've had to modify a proc that's
older than your children!!
Were I you, I'd put it off as long as possible too!

--
Dave

Simon Verona wrote:

thing I can really apply XSLT templates to are making search results a
bit more snazzy. For that job I like XSLT. I'm going to "template"
the listing in some manner anyway in my code, this just gives that
template a structure that I'm don't have to invent.

I sure wouldnt want to try to write an XSLT translator in D3 BASIC!
But I dont have to thankfully. So far I've mucked with Salbatron,
Xerces/Xalan, and whatever they stuffed into IE & Firefox. They all
worked on the simple template I've been working with so thats a good
thing. Salbatron and Xalan can be run from the command line so they
can be used by PICK with little fuss.

I've not looked at any commercial translators yet. There would have to
be a fairly compelling reason to pay for the product since I can get
open source translators that work great. I've also not tried the JAVA
translators and probably wont unless I just have to since I can get C
libraries that do the same thing.

btw, all errors in spelling and grammar come free of charge!