We spoke earlier on this list of needing marketing material to convince managers about the virtues of XSLFO.
I have found this description of a Gartner Note which is positive (I may not disclose content).
Cost of full note $95. http://www3.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?id=348967&acsFlg=accessCanBuy
FT-14-7235 Rita Knox
Gartner FirstTake 23 October 2001
New Style Language Makes Reformatting XML Content Easier
The new Extensible Stylesheet Language can save time and money since it eliminates the
need for those using XML to reformat the same content multiple times.
Event: On 16 October 2001, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) issued Extensible Stylesheet
Language (XSL) 1.0 as a W3C recommendation for specifying how Extensible Markup Language (XML)
documents may be formatted. W3C recommendation status indicates that a specification is stable,
contributes to Web interoperability and has been reviewed by W3C members, who favor its widespread
adoption.
First Take: Four years in the making, XSL elevates style to the prominence of content, making XSL the
companion "sizzle" to XML's "steak" since XML provides no presentation capabilities in its specification.
XSL defines "formatting objects" to control how XML-defined components are to map to presentation
styles for paper, auditory or electronic channels. For example, formatting objects on the Web can activate
pop-up windows, generate sounds or launch applications.
Here's how the W3C recommendation for XSL will likely enhance online transactions and exchanges:
. Using XSL Transformation to transform structured XML documents, XSL will permit output of
common content into many presentation formats -- e.g., paper, Web and audio.
. It will enable customization of content that facilitates branding, user preferences, accessibility
(e.g., increase font size or convert to audio stream from visual presentation). By enabling custom
presentation, XSL will marry with the XML content to form a union that will improve user
understanding (since presentation is essential to communicating a message that can be readily
received).
. Expect a host of new, XSL-enabled products to hit the market -- e.g., browsers, enterprise
portals, portal or user-facing application servers, publishing products (e.g., office suite
applications, interactive graphical interfaces for financial analysis or geographical maps), third-party
plug-ins or encapsulated instructions for different channels (e.g., audio and high-end
publishing).
. Users will likely rely less on HTML or XHTML documents with Cascading Style Sheet (CSS)
capability. Use of CSS will likely persist among its installed base and with enterprises that believe
that Web presentation is the be-all and end-all. For most, however, XSL will provide broader
capabilities.
Enterprises should deploy a team of information designers to define low-bandwidth style sheets for
multichannel output and publish them for enterprise use. The time expended by users on formatting
documents and Web feeds can then be recovered to focus instead on revenue-generating activities.
