Subject: Re: [xsl] <quote>XSL is NOT easy</quote> From: "Dimitre Novatchev" <dnovatchev@xxxxxxxxx> Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2007 08:51:14 -0700 |
There is an enormous amount of bad unmaintainable code being written by self-taught amateur programmers, in all sorts of languages, and many of them are attracted to languages like XSLT that look easy at first sight.
Yes, and discussing that a language "is not easy" we first must define what "easy" means.
For me XSLT 2.0 + FXSL is almost as easy as Haskell and using Haskell must be the easiest way to do programming.
If people do not share this observation, this means that they are missing something essential in their education -- be it the "declarative programming mindset" or understanding of basic math -- such as sets, lists and recursion.
There are many anecdotes from interviewers about the kind of "knowledge" they encounter in interviews. For example, the interviewer asks why in the small program written there are so many "if" statements -- "Why don't you use 'else' as well ? ".
I think we have almost arrived in the time when if someone expressess uneasiness in using/understanding functional programming, they are certainly confirming their unfitness as programmers.
On the other side, it has been discussed many times why functional programs are easier to understand, transform/optimize, prove correct and generally maintain -- one main factor for this is the "immutable" memory and lack of side effects.
Recently I reported to this list how easy it was to parse and convert JSON documents into XML ones using a general LR(1) parsing framework written entirely in XSLT 2.0.
These days I am successfully parsing (just generating a parse tree for now) the full XPath 2.0 using exactly the same genera LR(1) parsing framework written in XSLT 2.0.
The lexical scanner is also fully written in XSLT 2.0 (thanks to Dr. Kay for the well documented and explained grammar and lexical rules in his XPath 2.0 book -- I did find only a few typos, mainly related to mixing the use of chevrons and double quotes, or to the multiple ways to use the ">" character).
So, let's continue to show, by implementing new great systems and solutions in XSLT, that XSLT 2.0 is easier than or at least as easy to use as other mainstream popular programming languages.
-- Cheers, Dimitre Novatchev --------------------------------------- Truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence. --------------------------------------- To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk ------------------------------------- You've achieved success in your field when you don't know whether what you're doing is work or play
> XSL is NOT easy if > you want to code professionally in it. It IS easy to use XSL > but not well. ....
I would agree with this entirely. But then, I think it's true of every other programming language as well. There is an enormous amount of bad unmaintainable code being written by self-taught amateur programmers, in all sorts of languages, and many of them are attracted to languages like XSLT that look easy at first sight.
Michael Kay http://www.saxonica.com/
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