RE: Mike Kay and Microsoft (was: Accessing a node name from within <xsl:attribute>)

["Paulo Gaspar" <paulo dot gaspar at krankikom dot de>]

(In this posting "you" is the previous poster and not M.Kay.)

If you read Mike Kay's book on XSLT ("XSLT Programmer's
Reference"), you understand that he does NOT have is back turned
to MSXML. Apendix A (pages 671 to 714) are dedicated to MSXML 3.

Now, these are a lot of pages for some one that doesn't care about
MSXML, isn'it?

The book also answers most of the potential questions one might
have, covering the March 2000 edition of MSXML3. And it answers
those questions to a broader audience than the users of this
mailling list.


However, the book is on MSXML3, which is based on the final XML
standard. Not on that doubtful and very limited version that
comes with IE5.

Believe me, I have been using MSXML quite a lot and I know what I
am talking about:
 - With IE5's version of MSXML, you get a strange XSLT dialect
   which implementation was based on an EARLY DRAFT to the
   standard. It was released too early, probably due to marketing
   motivations. There is no good suport to its behaviour not even
   in Microsoft's documentation;
 - With MSXML3 May 2000 edition, you have a preview that works
   better, faster and is more stable than the previous releases of
   the product.

If you want to do serious XML/XSLT work with a Microsoft tool you
should go to:
  http://msdn.microsoft.com/xml
and get this version - together with the SDK documentation.


Working with IE5's MSXML is working with a non standard XSLT
dialect with not much of a future (although MSXML3 has a
compatibility mechanism).


If you want to play with IE5's version... fine, but that is not
standard XSLT that most of the posters of this mailling list use.

So, PROBABLY, most of this list's posters will probably advise you
to upgrade to MSXML3 without being able to help you further than
giving you hints on the way too achieve this.


As far as I have noticed, Michael Kay position is just consistent
with this. This is my attitude too and, again, I use MSXML3.

(And, yes, I have red Kay's postings answering questions from
MSXML users in the past.)


Have fun,

Paulo Gaspar



> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-xsl-list@mulberrytech.com
> [mailto:owner-xsl-list@mulberrytech.com]On Behalf Of Kay Michael
> Sent: Friday, July 07, 2000 11:06
> To: 'xsl-list@mulberrytech.com'
> Subject: RE: Mike Kay and Microsoft (was: Accessing a node name from
> within <xsl:attribute>)
>
>
> > The first thing to establish, though, is that Mike Kay
> > is definitely not the person to ask XSL questions regarding
> > Microsoft.  I think he has a filter set up that detects
> > keywords like "IE5" or "Microsoft" and automatically
> > spits out some form of "Microsoft sucks" without regard
> > to the actual question asked.
>
> The first sentence is correct. I'm not an expert on the Microsoft
> dialect of
> XSL, and where it's clear that people are asking about that dialect, I
> generally avoid answering the question.
>
> Where it appears that people are confused about the two dialects, I try to
> help them understand the distinction. I'm afraid Microsoft have
> undoubtedly
> caused a great deal of confusion in the marketplace by shipping a general
> release mass market product that implemented an approximation to an early
> draft of a standard, and describing the product as if it implemented the
> standard. This wastes a great deal of my personal time, and costs
> my company
> and our customers a lot of money.
>
> I have never used insulting language about the Microsoft technology or the
> company, and I would never do so, it's not my style. I try to be
> completely
> objective about both its strengths and its weaknesses. If you can find any
> evidence that I have made statements which are not fair criticism based on
> fact, please point to them.
>
> Mike Kay
>
>
>  XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
>


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