XSLT and XPath Become W3C Recommendations

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         http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt
         http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath
 

XSLT and XPath Add Strength, Flexibility to XML Architecture
As more content publishers and commercial interests deliver rich data in
XML, the need for presentation technology increases in both scale and
functionality. XSL meets the more complex, structural formatting demands
that XML document authors have. 

XSLT makes it possible for one XML document to be transformed into another
according to an XSL Style sheet. As part of the document transformation,
XSLT uses XPath to address parts of an XML document that an author wishes to
transform. XPath is also used by another XML technology, XPointer, to
specify locations in an XML document. "What we've learned in developing
XPath will serve other critical XML technologies already in development,"
noted Daniel Veillard, W3C Staff contact for the XML Linking Working Group. 

Together, XSLT and XPath make it possible for XML documents to be
reformatted according to the parameters of XSL style sheets and increase
presentation flexibility into the XML architecture.

Device Independent Delivery of XML Documents 
Separating content from presentation is key to the Web's extensibility and
flexibility. "As the Web develops into a structured data space, and the
tools used to access the Web grow more varied, the need for flexibility in
styling and structure is essential," explained Vincent Quint, W3C User
Interface Domain Leader and staff contact for the XSL Working Group. "With
XSLT and XPath, we're closer to delivering rich, structured data content to
a wider range of devices." 

Broad Industry Support, Multiple Implementations Already Available 
The XSLT Recommendation was written and developed by the XSL Working Group,
which includes key industry players such as Adobe Systems, Arbortext, Bell
Labs, Bitstream, Datalogics, Enigma, IBM, Interleaf, Lotus, Microsoft,
Novell, Oracle, O'Reilly & Associates, RivCom, SoftQuad Inc, Software AG,
and Sun Microsystems. Notable contributions also came from the University of
Edinburgh and a range of invited experts. 

The XPath Recommendation pooled together efforts from both the XSL Working
Group and the XML Linking Working Group, whose membership includes
CommerceOne, CWI, DATAFUSION, Fujitsu, GMD, IBM, Immediate Digital,
Microsoft, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Textuality, and the University of
Southampton. 

The creators of XML documents now have a variety of open source and
commercial tools which support XSLT and XPath. In addition, many W3C members
who reviewed the specifications have committed to implementations in
upcoming products, indicated in the wide range of testimonials.



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_________________________________________________________
Joseph Reagle Jr.   
Policy Analyst           mailto:reagle@w3.org
XML-Signature Co-Chair   http://www.w3.org/People/Reagle/

Received on Tuesday, 16 November 1999 13:36:07 UTC