Hello,

on Montag, 12. März 2007, Thomas Schraitle wrote:
> On Sonntag, 11. März 2007, Christian Boltz wrote:
> > [...]
> >
> > > > I usually get headache. OK, it wasn't a big problem
> > > > with this small file, but I had "some" bad experience with the
> > > > XLS files for the german SUSE Linux FAQ...
> > >
> > > From my work with XSLT, you get headache when
> > > [...]
>
> My list was not meant as criticism of your files, it was more a
> *general* rant. ;)

I understood it as such - and I checked my files against it ;-)

> I don't say, XML/XSLT is the solution for everything. However, I saw
> many XML files and XSLT stylesheet broken by design but the author
> vociferous complains about the deficiancies of XML/XSLT instead of
> reconsidering his/her style. :) (Again, it's not a criticism of your
> files.)

np ;-)

> > [...]
> >
> > > * you don't use the full potential of XSLT. For example using
> > > xsl:for-each instead of xsl:apply-templates where it is in most
> > > cases more appropriate.
> >
> > Hmmm...
> >
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~/suse-linux-faq/dtd/html> grep for-each * |wc -l
> > 73
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~/suse-linux-faq/dtd/html> grep apply-templates * |wc -l
> > 13
>
> In most cases xsl:for-each is considered bad style. :) XSLT is *not*
> Perl, Python, Ruby, ...

... and, in my case, especially not PHP *g*

> Here are some articles that I think are worth reading:
>
> * How Not to Use XSLT

Reminds me of http://www.kasper-online.de/goldmail/ and 
http://www.karzauninkat.com/Goldhtml/goldhtml.htm *g*  (both german)

> [...]

Thanks for the links - I'll have a look at them when I find some free 
time.

> > Another headache candidate:
> >
> > * you need a table of content / menu _and_ (part of the) content in
> > the same output file (this explains why the LaTeX output was easier
> > - it does the TOC automatically)
>
> Hmn, I am not sure, if I understand your problem completely.

Have a look at http://suse-linux-faq.koehntopp.de (or any subpage). 
Basically, we need the content of the XML file twice to generate one 
HTML file:
- first for the menu (left column)
- second for the content

So the workflow is:
- parse the XML to generate the menu
- "rewind" the XML file
- parse the XML again to generate the content
  (content = table of contents | chapter | question with answer)

This caused some[tm] headache and makes the HTML generation ways more 
difficult than the LaTeX generation (because LaTeX generates the "Menu" 
automatically).

Additionally: As already said, we aren't the original author of the XSLT  
files - and you might know that understanding other people's code can 
be difficult ;-)

And to make it even more funny, we have switches to generate an 
all-questions-in-one-HTML-file version and another one with links 
visible that is later lynx -dump'ed to text/plain.

In short: It works, and I'm very happy about that - because it means I 
don't have to touch it ;-))


Regards,

Christian Boltz
-- 
[nach Update auf SuSE 9.3] Jetzt habe ich nur ein neues Problem:
Es ist doch echt stinklangweilig, wenn's nix mehr zu frickeln gibt...;-)
[Friedemann Garvelmann in suse-laptop]
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