Yes, there's no reason why you shouldn't use XSLT to produce this kind of
output - though it's obviously a lot more work than producing HTML.

I'd suggest a two-phase approach: first generate an XML document that
contains a logical representation of your output (as boxes, lines, etc), and
then a rendition phase to turn this into ASCII art. If you do it that way,
you'll be able to make changes to both modules independently of each other.

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



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris [mailto:phatfish@xxxxxxxxx] 
> Sent: 26 April 2005 20:27
> To: XSL List
> Subject:  Should XSLT be used to generate a plain text document?
> 
> Hi, i would like to create some (i guess you would call it) styled, or
> formatted plain text.
> 
> Eg, some information about a music album: (this probably wont display
> correctly, but you get the idea)
> 
> +-----------------------------------------------------+
> |           Im So Good - Im The Best (2005)           |
> +-----------------------------------------------------+
> |                                                     |
> |  About:                                             |
> |  +-----------------------------------------------+  |
> |  | Text text text text text text text text text  |  |
> |  | Text text text text text text text text text  |  |
> |  | Text text text text text text text text text  |  |
> |  | Text text text text text text text text text  |  |
> |  | Text text text text text text text text text  |  |
> |  | Text text text text text text text text text  |  |
> |  | Text text more text displayed by a loop.      |  |
> |  +-----------------------------------------------+  |
> |                                                     |
> |  Tracklist:                                         |