Re: GRDDL and transformations (take 2)

On Fri, 25 Aug 2006, Harry Halpin wrote:

> So, I'd say "A GRDDL implementation MUST support XSLT 1.0, and a GRDDL
> implementation MAY support other transformations."
>
> Not sure: Do people think GRDDL "MUST support ECMAscript[1]" I mean, I
> think it makes sense, as most GRDDL implementations should be able to
> call javascript easily enough - what do people think?"

I would compromise with: MUST support XSLT 1.0 and MAY support other 
transformations (including, but not limited to: *script,.. others ..)

> Although we have "application/ecmascript" and "application/javascript",
> it appears that there isn't a media type for "application/xslt+xml"
> quite yet [2]...

See my earlier email about there being a precedent for associating XSLT 
with XML (with xml-stylesheet processing instruction) - http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-stylesheet/

It's pretty much standard practice to associate type="text/xsl" with the 
above processing instruction mechanism, so I would think this make a 
better 'default' mime-type for an XSLT transformation.

For example, this is how Masahide Kanzaki (http://www.kanzaki.com/parts/xsltdoc.xsl) associates XSLT transforms 
with XSLT documents, rendering them as aXHTML documentation with cross-links between templates and etc..

(Load the link and peek into the processing instruction at the top)

>
> To get around this, we could say:
>
> "If the transformation does not specify a content-type of a
> transformation language the GRDDL implementation understands, then the
> GRDDL implementation SHOULD assume the transformation language is XSLT 1.0"

see above

>
> This leads to some interesting GRDDL designs, because I think it allows
> us to fulfill some of the needs people have rather mentioned (albeit
> without detailed use-cases), without changing anything about GRDDL.

The addition of the xml-stylesheet processing instruction mechanics make 
it possible to even embed a transform in the original XML (or XHTML 
document).  See: http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt#section-Embedding-Stylesheets

Chimezie Ogbuji
Lead Systems Analyst
Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Cleveland Clinic Foundation
9500 Euclid Avenue/ W26
Cleveland, Ohio 44195
Office: (216)444-8593
ogbujic@ccf.org

Received on Friday, 25 August 2006 04:21:45 UTC