David,
I'm in the midst of cowriting a book on XML Query for SAMS, and could not
agree with you more. I've been working with XSLT is clunky and verbose
principally because of the requirements of mapping the language to an XML
basis, and the benefits of doing so usually outweigh the verbosity. XSLT 2.0
is more concise and friendlier as a functional language, though it can still
get a little overwhelming. XML Query on the other hand has always felt to me
like someone wanted to create SQL for XML, despite the fact that the
inherent structures and methodologies for working with the two types of data
are rather radically different. It makes some sense in pipelining
architectures, but I find there is nothing I can't do in XML Query I can't
do in XSLT, while there is a great deal that I can do in XSLT that is next
to impossible in XML Query.
-- Kurt Cagle
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Carlisle" <davidc(_at_)nag(_dot_)co(_dot_)uk>
To: <xsl-list(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com>
Sent: Friday, October 18, 2002 5:38 AM
Subject: Re: Functional Language wasRE: [xsl] Re: declarative language, need
for loops etc.
so that was the plan?
Can't think of any other reason for Xquery...
I've always had a problem with the concept of ugliness in a programming
language,....
yes. sensible points.
But as the exception that proves the rule I think Xquery is just plain
horrible.
One might be tempted to think that it was hacked together in committee
from two disjoint languages based on two disjoint programming styles by
two disjoint group of people with little shared experience in common.
But surely that can't possibly be the case....
David
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