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Re: [xsl] XSLT Hello World

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On Tue, Mar 25, 2014 at 12:29 AM, David Rudel <fwqhgads@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 25, 2014 at 12:47 AM, Ihe Onwuka <ihe.onwuka@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> seminar. I am definitely making that choice over the superior product
>> that demands otherwise and trips me up 99% of the time I try what
>> looks like an obvious option.
>>
>
> I dispute the underlying assumption that one can meaningfully talk
> about what constitutes an "obvious option."
>

It's the whole premise of product design. If you got into a car for a
test drive you would have certain expectations about where certain
controls were  and how certain things worked wouldn't you?. There
might be some special features that might  explanation from the
salesman.

>
> What constitutes an "obvious option" depends on what your background
> is. Most of Java or C++ doesn't look obvious at all to someone who has
> never worked with OO.
>

If I got 10 programmers with 10 different backgrounds in a room and
asked them what they thought certain language constructs did - lets
say return() or an if statement, I am pretty sure there would be a
unanimity of expectation.

>
> Before Java makes much sense, you have to
> understand OO. Before XSLT or Xpath is going to make much sense, you
> have to understand the structure of XML/DOM and think in terms of
> trees, etc.
>

I don't see why a person who wants to extract 14 December 2014 from

<date>14 December 2014</date>

needs to know anything about a DOM or think in trees.

>
> And I would claim that once someone is thinking in terms of trees and
> nodes, then the "obvious" things to try work just fine in XSLT/Xpath.
>

OK. Not a human centric view. How can I illustrate.

How much do I have to know about a car and it's design if I just want
to drive it to work and back?

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