Re: [ubl-cmsc] Transformation Language

[Eduardo Gutentag <eduardo.gutentag@sun.com>]

Matthew Gertner wrote:
> 
> 4) Should the transformation be represented as an adhoc XML document (like
> the Vienna approach) or using some standard transformation language (such as
> XSLT)?

I'm having a hard time answering this one shortly and coherently, but in any
event please remember that I am a strong supporter of XSLT for just about 
anything short of brushing my teeth.

However, I think the question should be presented as "Should the expression of
context rules be represented as...", because there is no doubt in
my mind that the transformation itself should be done with XSLT (even though
some could do it through Java or through some proprietary method).

The problem I see with representing the rules with XSLT is that XSLT appears
very complicated and long to the untrained eye; the rules presented in v1.04
have a variety of shortcuts that would have to be expressed in very long and
incomprehensible stylesheets. Or consider the issue of rule application order;
it is not XSLT's priority (which selects only one rule out of many); in order
to express order with XSLT one would probably have to write a very complicated
XSLT stylesheet indeed. The axis of action in the rules, also, is different
than the one in stylesheets. While the former concentrate on what happens
if a given context is in play, the latter concentrate on what happens when
a given element is encountered. It's a different way of looking at the
problem.

That being said, I believe it is possible to write an XSLT stylesheet that, when
applied to a given context rules document, will result in a second XSLT stylesheet
that, when applied to a schema, will execute the actions indicated in the
context rules document. So XSLT is not totally out of the picture...


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Eduardo Gutentag               |         e-mail: eduardo.gutentag@Sun.COM
XML Technology Center          |         Phone:  (510) 986-3651 x73651
Sun Microsystems Inc.          |