Re: [Exist-development] New list member offering services :)

[Joe W. <jo...@gm...>]

Hi Wolfgang, Tony, Martin, Dan,

Even though I learned XSLT first before XQuery, I find it much easier
to maintain XQuery than XSLT stylesheets, since that's what I work in
100% of the time now.  I converted a TEI-to-XHTML stylesheet from XSLT
(65 templates) to XQuery (41 functions, including the master
typeswitch) routine.  I am now much happier than before, when I'd have
to "relearn" XSLT any time I wanted to make a change.

One "valid" reason to use XSLT, of course, would be if you want to use
an existing stylesheet or framework out of the box.  For example, the
TEI Consortium maintains an incredible array of XSLT stylesheets, for
TEI to XHTML, XSL-FO, docx, LaTeX, slideshows, etc.; I imagine DocBook
does something similar.  But if you really want to really customize
your output and you are going to substantially rewrite the stylesheet
anyway, I agree with Dan that there are real benefits to moving to an
all-XQuery workflow.

Another question that has been raised is the DocBook 4 to 5
transition.  I'm not familiar with DocBook, but given the benefits of
DocBook 5 and using XQuery for transformation, how disruptive would it
be to do *both* at once?  (1) Convert the eXist documentation to
DocBook 5, and (2) convert the stylesheet from DocBook 4-oriented XSLT
to DocBook 5-oriented XQuery?

Another factor to consider is that I count 23 XSL files in the
"stylesheets" directory.  Should all of these be converted, or only
"db2xhtml.xsl"?  If not all 23 need to be converted, which are the key
ones?

Joe


On Fri, Apr 9, 2010 at 2:03 PM, Wolfgang Meier <wol...@ex...> wrote:
> Hi Dan,
>
> so you suggest to migrate our current stylesheets to XQuery? I don't
> really mind since the stylesheets will need to be revised anyway, but
> it should be discussed first. We should probably choose the approach
> which is easier to cope with for most people.
>
> Personally, I sometimes prefer XSLT for simple, top-down
> transformation processes, but well, we may not need to force beginners
> to learn both, XSLT and XQuery at the same time.
>
> Wolfgang
>
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