One can debate the merits of such-and-such an approach to
transformations and the debate should be lively.
But verbiage such as "your bastard child of a language" has no utility
whatsoever and certainly no place in polite discourse.
I would suggest giving this guy's opinions no further attention.
At one level, of course, you're right, Alan.
On the other hand, a rant like this is a reminder that when as engineers
we are designing and constructing artefacts, we need to remember that
people will have an emotional response to those artefacts, rather than a
purely rational and utilitarian response. Steve Jobs built the Apple
empire by recognizing that fact and exploiting it. Gerry Weinberg's book
"the psychology of computer programming" is one I really must read
again, because it focuses on programming as a human activity in which we
are driven by many factors that aren't purely rational.
I find the range of emotional reactions to XSLT fascinating. It's a
"love it or hate it" language (as indeed is Haskell). People approach it
with very different perspectives: some people are happy to treat it
initially as a simple fill-in-the-blanks templating language and learn
its subtleties later, others (like me) find it necessary to understand
the deep concepts of a tool before they are happy using it. I think it's
our job as technology designers to understand how the psychology of our
users that will trigger emotional reactions to the tools that we deliver.
Anyone who wants a new programming language to succeed has to understand
that it will not succeed or fail on the basis of measurable and rational
criteria like delivering a 10% improvement in programmer productivity,
it will succeed or fail on the basis of gut reaction.
Michael Kay
Saxonica
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