Re: remove xml-stylesheet appendix?

I would be against removing it.  Although they are not enforced
'formally', xml-stylesheet processing instructions are supported by a
large number of web agents and XML processors.  In addition, I think it
is in the interest of GRDDL to be clear about how its use of XML
pipleines to produce content for machine consumption (faithful
rendition) differs significantly from the precedent of using XML
pipelines to produce content for human consumption (the whole content
versus presentation pattern: docbook -> PDF,HTML, etc..).

GRDDL aware-agents which piggy-back XML processors may be in for a
surprise if the underlying XML processor, applies xml-stylesheet
processing instructions by default (some do).  An explicit health
warning is prudent, even if we explicitly mark it as informative.

I'd prefer clarifying the text rather than deleting it or marking it as
informative (I assumed that its place in the appendix suggests that is
informative).  A new first paragraph:

[[[
The xml-stylesheet processing instruction[STYPI] is generally deployed
for automated presentation processing. This type of link is different
from links to GRDDL transformation algorithms, which are intended to
facilitate the extraction of RDF as a faithful rendition [#sec_rend] of
the source.  The former is geared more for human consumption while the
latter is primarily for machine consumption. 

Document authors who wish their documents to be unambiguous when used
with GRDDL should avoid using xml-stylesheet processing instructions as
their use may interfere with transforms nominated by GRDDL for the
production of GRDDL results in the same source document.
]]]

The last part of the above was added with language that ended up having
to contend with statements made in the faithful-infoset sections and the
new health warnings added about DTD's and entities, so I tried to keep
the tone consistent.  

The second paragraph (from the original) is not true as there are at
least three examples of XSLT processors which support this: 4Suite,
Saxon, and MSXML (I'm not sure why this did not come to my attention
before).  

[[[
Also, parsing the content of processing instructions is not supported by
XML tools such as XSLT processors, and grounding processing instructions
in URI space is not as straightforward as using namespaces with
attributes.
]]]


I'm not sure can suggest a change for that second part, so my vote is to
delete it.  Dave's concern seems to be about wandering into
implementation advice.  I don't think a health warning about possible
clashing of transform nomination WRT to xml-stylesheet applies, but a
(false) statement about support of xml-stylesheet along with a critique
of them doesn't seem very appropriate, in retrospect.  Especially
considering the language of the failthful-infoset paragraph suggests the
WG has taken a stance of being silent about XML processors.


-- 
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


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Received on Friday, 6 April 2007 13:58:01 UTC