This is the mail archive of the
xsl-list@mulberrytech.com
mailing list .
RE: The Future of Browser-Bound XML?
- From: Wendell Piez <wapiez at mulberrytech dot com>
- To: xsl-list at lists dot mulberrytech dot com
- Date: Wed, 03 Jul 2002 16:57:03 -0400
- Subject: RE: [xsl] The Future of Browser-Bound XML?
- Reply-to: xsl-list at lists dot mulberrytech dot com
At 03:58 PM 7/3/2002, Brad wrote:
~Then there's XSLFO... but from what I've read that's more aimed at the
printed
~word, and all the examples I've seen are diplayed as PDF files.
Correct, however there are many other forms of converting XML to printed
outputs. We tend to use Perl and LaTeX. But you could use XSL-FO and
passiveTex to make postscript files or pdf.
Not to mention the increasing number of tools that will import XML into a
page layout program (with various methods of specifying style and layout).
Or converting into HTML and opening in some word processor that claims to
do that....
There are other ways like DSSSL which was very popular with formatting
SGML, but I think a lot of people have strayed away from DSSSL these days.
I'm not sure DSSSL was ever "very popular" -- but in any case, XSLT is very
much a kind of DSSSL-Lite.
~So what are we supposed to use to display XML files to the web without first
~changing them into the HTML/CSS paradigm? Or is that how we're "supposed"
to do it?
Yes that is how you are supposed to do it.
But it depends on who's doing the supposing don't it?
We are working on several different stylesheets that will allow different
people in the company to see the same content in a way that is geared
towards their final output. For example we have an HTML preview of XML
docs that is in the format of training materials for our trainers. They
can edit the XML in XMetaL in a pleasing interface and then click a button
to see what the end result will look like. These materials will end up
being printed, but for a quick glance HTML works very good and is faster
than generating a pdf.
These files that the trainers are editing are actually fragments of the
overall help. So by them being industry experts and modifying the content
to make their training materials better they are actually making the rest
of the help and other materials that are generated from the same sources
better too. Of course there is a lot that goes into the editing and
approval but you get the idea.
This is a nice synopsis of using XML to its strengths. You don't have to
insist on WYSIWYG at every stage of a production process in order to get
very good results. On the contrary, "false color proofs" (proof versions
that have formatting enhancements of various elements to bring them to an
editor's attention, but which don't appear in the final output) have a long
history in the publishing industry.
Cheers,
Wendell
======================================================================
Wendell Piez mailto:wapiez@mulberrytech.com
Mulberry Technologies, Inc. http://www.mulberrytech.com
17 West Jefferson Street Direct Phone: 301/315-9635
Suite 207 Phone: 301/315-9631
Rockville, MD 20850 Fax: 301/315-8285
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mulberry Technologies: A Consultancy Specializing in SGML and XML
======================================================================
XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list