Re: Is this stuff ready for prime time?

On 05/03/07, Lester Ward <lward@rentec.com> wrote:

> Be advised however: when you use XSLT to transform your XML data into a format that can be
> processed by XSL-FO, that format is _also_ just an XML file. There is nothing stopping you
> from just changing your flat data directly into files for XSL-FO directly, skipping XML
> conversion and XSLT altogether.

Except the re-use concept. xsl-fo is (IMHO) a throw-away format,
just like an object file.


>
> Advantages of this approach:
>
> o Don't need to learn XSLT, which can be tricky.
Just something harder, like programming

> o Faster execution time, which sounds like it may matter to you.
>
> Disadvantages of this approach:
>
> o Inflexible. The standard XML->XSLT->XSL-FO approach can basically do anything by
> changing the rules in the XSLT. Skipping that step, you are essentially "hard-coding" your
> output to to be exactly one thing. In most cases, this is not something you do on purpose.

which some people find a hardship.

>
>
> To me, making the choice would largely center around what your "official" format will be
> going forward.
And how good your Xtal ball is?

<beenThereDoneThat/>



-- 
Dave Pawson
XSLT XSL-FO FAQ.
http://www.dpawson.co.uk

Received on Monday, 5 March 2007 17:35:13 UTC