[exprla-devel] [XPL] Issue #2 - XPL will provide mechanisms to link XSL documents to XML documents.

[reid_spencer <ras...@re...>]

--- In xpl-dev@y..., "Richard Anthony Hein" <935551@i...> wrote:

  -----Original Message-----
  From: me@m... [mailto:me@m...]On
Behalf Of Jonathan Burns
  Sent: July 5, 2000 9:15 AM
  To: xpl@e...
  Subject: Re: [XPL] Re: a domain name for XPL


  Richard Anthony Hein wrote:
      a.. XPL will format output using XSL.

  I don't know about this. Is XSL diverse enough to drive the range of
output mechanisms
  in current use? Can it efficiently make method calls to COM 
objects? Talk
to Java Beans?
  Generate Perl, or Postscript?

  I mean, it was beginning to sound to me that SOAP would make the 
right
kind of output
  stage for most purposes.
  [RAH]

Good questions.  This was a too-general statement I made.  The XSL
specification states:
  "XSL is a language for expressing stylesheets. Given a class of
arbitrarily structured XML [W3C XML] documents or data files, 
designers use
an XSL stylesheet to express their intentions about how that 
structured
content should be presented; that is, how the source content should be
styled, laid out, and paginated onto some presentation medium, such 
as a
window in a Web browser or a hand-held device, or a set of physical 
pages in
a catalog, report, pamphlet, or book."
I was thinking about this kind of output, so I was being far too 
general in
stating the requirement.  However, now that I've thought about it 
more,
perhaps XPL shouldn't touch on formatting the XML using stylesheets 
at all.
There probably isn't any point, except to say that XSL stylesheets 
can be
called and linked to XML documents via XPL, in the same sense that 
ASP, VB
or any other language link up XSL and XML documents now.  Other than 
that,
XSL shouldn't effect our requirements.  If so, perhaps the requirement
should read:

  a.. XPL will provide mechanisms to link XSL documents to XML 
documents.
Comments on this?

So a new question arises from your questions Jonathan:  what shall we 
use to
drive the range of output mechanisms in current use?  Your answer 
seems to
be SOAP.  There is also XML-RPC.  Or will XPL have it's own version 
owing to
the fact that grove property sets might be something to consider in 
this
regard?  There should probably be a new thread for this, like "output
mechanisms".  But first let's state what the output mechanisms must
accomplish.  Your turn!

Richard Anthony Hein
--- End forwarded message ---