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RE: [xsl] xslt critique


Subject: RE: [xsl] xslt critique
From: "Kirk Allen Evans" <kaevans@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2002 13:06:39 -0400

> > Trying to backtrack problems in XSLT and debugging
> was extrely
> > difficult.

Actually, debugging XSLT should be much easier than trying to debug
spaghetti coded ASP.  The reason why is that you can capture the XML that is
serving as your input and debug the XSLT separately from the rest of the
app.  Isolating the problem down to just the input XML and XSLT is great
because the XSLT should produce the same result each time for the same input
XML (barring any extension functions with side effects).  The only problem,
then, should be capturing the XML prior to the transformation.  You can then
use any number of tools to perform the transformation itself to confirm its
results and step through the transformation:  Xselerator is a great product
for this.

Another option to consider is using Visual Studio .NET combined with
ActiveState's Visual XSLT [1].  VS.NET debugs ASP code much more reliably
than Visual Interdev.  Visual XSLT allows you to step straight into .NET
XSLT transforms and debug them within the Visual Studio .NET IDE - while it
does not currently support MSXML debugging, but it supports using MSXSL for
editing.

Kirk Allen Evans
http://www.xmlandasp.net
"XML and ASP.NET", New Riders Publishing
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/073571200X




> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:owner-xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Chuck White
> Sent: Friday, July 26, 2002 11:57 AM
> To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [xsl] xslt critique
>
>
> When working with someone else's stylesheet I've found Marrowsoft's
> Xselerator (Win 32-based) to be a wonderful tool. The code you are
> encountering may be badly written, in which case of course it's better to
> just start over. However, if the code is well written, it may use some
> fairly complex expressions, and Xselerator will help you
> negotiate your way
> to the appropriate nodes referenced by the expressions very quickly.
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Charles White
> The Tumeric Partnership
> http://www.tumeric.net
> chuck@xxxxxxxxxxx
> http://www.javertising.com
> ________________________________________
> Author, Mastering XSLT
> Co-Author, Mastering XML, Premium Edition
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Greg Fichter" <gfichter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Friday, July 26, 2002 8:22 AM
> Subject: RE: [xsl] xslt critique
>
>
> > Wow the article writer likes to use his vocabulary!
> >
> > I must agree slightly with this article.  I am new to XSL and I
> was placed
> > in charge of fixing an application that was written by a programmer that
> > just quit.  Trying to backtrack problems in XSLT and debugging
> was extrely
> > difficult.  The web pages were very long some have hundreds of lines of
> code
> > and it is confusing when data is being transformed in two seperate web
> pages
> > (the front ASP page and the behind the scenes XSLT stylesheet).
> >
> > Does anyone have good debugging techniques or tips for XSLT?
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > [mailto:owner-xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of bryan
> > Sent: Friday, July 26, 2002 2:25 AM
> > To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: [xsl] xslt critique
> >
> >
> >
> > http://www.cs.uu.nl/~visser/ftp/LVV02.pdf
> > has an article about strategic programming, included in it is a critique
> > about XSLT, I was interested in what people on the list might feel about
> > these criticisms?
> > I'm finding some of the complaints not sensible although this is
> > probably because I have trouble at times with too much abstraction.
> >
> > Quote from article:
> > "At least two ingredients of strategic programming are truly missing.
> > There
> > is no notion of partiality. Templates simply apply or not. Any kind of
> > backtracking model is not available. More seriously, XSLT templates
> > are not first-class. As discussed for basic rewriting and tangled
> > traversal
> > in functional programming, this leads to tangling traversal control
> > and computation. In fact, XSLT even lacks appropriate type-specific
> > operations since one cannot even easily pattern match on elements of
> > a certain structure. This was observed in [28]. The resulting
> > inappropriateness of XSLT for intentionally generic document
> > transformation is discussed and illustrated in [41]. Besides, an
> > XSLT-like language design
> > is hardly accessible for typeful (generic) transformations, although
> > there
> > are some theoretical results on typing essential fragments of the XSLT
> > expressiveness..."
> >
> >
> >  XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
> >
> >
> >  XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
> >
> >
>
>
>  XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
>
>
>


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