Peter, The key is that by using XSLT we don't need to use one particular software component and as you say, everyone can execute an XSLT script in their chosen environment where the output should be almost the same.
We have done many XSL transformations from AOM XML and they are not as complex as you might expect. In fact XSLT is designed exactly for this purpose and does make it relatively simple to do such things. The only people that think XSLT is complex and unmaintainable are those that are not use to using XSLT, just like those that are not use to using Effiel, Perl, etc, everyone has their preferred language. Luckily, there is quite a large and growing number of developers that are XSLT literate, whether they like the language or not. Heath > -----Original Message----- > From: openehr-technical-bounces at openehr.org [mailto:openehr-technical- > bounces at openehr.org] On Behalf Of Peter Gummer > Sent: Wednesday, 16 April 2008 10:18 AM > To: For openEHR technical discussions > Subject: Re: Archetype documentation using XML + XSLT > > sam.heard signatureSam Heard wrote: > > > What we need is an XSL Script that consumes XML archetypes ... > > > Hi Sam, > > XSLT is ok in small doses, but it becomes unmaintainable for anything > complex. Other approaches share the advantages claimed at > http://www.openehr.org/wiki/display/dev/Archetype+to+HTML: "It can be used > anywhere and on any platform and should easily allow localisation. Many > people know how to tweak and maintain XSL." > > Just about any language these days has XML parsing libraries. Almost any > language would be more maintainable than XSLT (even something as grotty as > Perl). The transforms for XML archetypes would become quite complex, I > imagine, especially with the localisation requirement. > > My own experience with XSLT is summarised by the second-last paragraph of > http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/200103/msg00647.html: '... developers > whom I know are going over the same path with XSLT : "It is cool and > simple - It is cool and complex - It is complex and it does not look cool > for me".' > > > But why generate the HTML from XML archetypes rather than ADL? There's > already a solid, cross-platform ADL parser. Why not use that? > > - Peter > > > _______________________________________________ > openEHR-technical mailing list > openEHR-technical at openehr.org > http://lists.chime.ucl.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/openehr-technical
