At 09:27 AM 7/14/2004, you wrote:
I yield to Michael Kay & Wendell Piez. :-) Perhaps, though, I simply
overstated. I do believe that far too many XSLT newcomers are writing
spaghetti XSLT and have very little clue why it works (or doesn't work).
It's true that empty templates are going to be very mysterious things until
you understand the processing model.
On the other hand, figuring out how and why they work the way they do can
be an excellent exercise to help gain that understanding.
Like so much, this cuts both ways. I'm definitely in favor of anything that
can lower the incidence of people trying to use XSLT (or any technology)
without understanding how it works. Choosing to be ignorant because
knowledge is "too hard" rarely pays off in the end, and often it proves to
be very expensive.
So ironically, this discussion is very useful (thanks John) if for no other
reason that maybe a newbie or two will say "hm, the experts are arguing
over whether it's a good idea to use empty templates: maybe I better
understand that". Yep!
Cheers,
Wendell
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Wendell Piez
mailto:wapiez(_at_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com
Mulberry Technologies, Inc. http://www.mulberrytech.com
17 West Jefferson Street Direct Phone: 301/315-9635
Suite 207 Phone: 301/315-9631
Rockville, MD 20850 Fax: 301/315-8285
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Mulberry Technologies: A Consultancy Specializing in SGML and XML
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