• From: "Michael Kay" <mike@s...>
• To: "'Costello, Roger L.'" <costello@m...>,<xml-dev@l...>
• Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2008 15:53:34 -0000

> Here is a response from a colleague:
> 
> "... in general XSLT is cool but limited. If your transform 
> requires any "higher math" or advanced functionality or 
> external code libraries (such as geometry coordinate system 
> libraries), you almost always have to go back to a higher 
> level language (such as Java) at some point."
> 

It's true that the availability of domain-specific libraries may influence
your choice of programming language. Sometimes this will steer you away from
XSLT, sometimes towards it. 

And XSLT is just as capable of making cross-language library calls as any
other programming language. Indeed, some people choose to write applications
in XSLT that do little else.

I suspect that your colleague might not be aware that there is a library
specifically for processing geographic information in XSLT:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/geofunctions 

It's true that XSLT is a specialized language rather than a general-purpose
language. But it's capable of a lot more than some people imagine. Some
people never really get below the surface to discover its depth.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/

• References:
  • Feasibility of "do all application coding in the XML languages"?
    • From: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@m...>