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Re: formal XSLT education (was Re: _why_ do people...)
- To: xsl-list at lists dot mulberrytech dot com
- Subject: Re: [xsl] formal XSLT education (was Re: _why_ do people...)
- From: Wendell Piez <wapiez at mulberrytech dot com>
- Date: Thu, 06 Sep 2001 13:21:36 -0400
- References: <a05100306b7bc3f96795f@[192.168.254.9]>
- Reply-To: xsl-list at lists dot mulberrytech dot com
At 06:38 PM 9/5/01, Mike wrote:
>So I guess I am a bit conflicted as to the best way to steer people when
>introducing them to XSLT. Is it better to start with a clean slate and
>explain it all from the ground up, or do you make some assumptions about
>what they already know and put effort into leading them from "the way you'd
>think it would be done" to "the way it really gets done"?
Again, I don't want to speak for Debbie, but I think we lean towards the
"clean slate" approach. This is partly because we actually get students who
don't have a procedural or even a web background, on whom those particular
assumptions are lost. Interestingly, these students often turn out to have
a remarkable facility with the language.
(It'll be interesting if XSL-FO brings in a whole new class of users from
the off line publication world.)
Experience does show that however you get there, a firm grasp of (a)
template-based processing and (b) the ins-and-outs of XPath, together
provide a good foundation for almost any use case. The most frustration
I've seen from self-taught users has been either because they didn't
understand templates (including those helpful but sometimes pesky built-in
templates), or because they were trying to use XPath without really knowing
how it works.
Cheers,
Wendell
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Wendell Piez mailto:wapiez@mulberrytech.com
Mulberry Technologies, Inc. http://www.mulberrytech.com
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Suite 207 Phone: 301/315-9631
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