On Fri, Nov 7, 2014 at 6:45 PM, Michael Kay mike@xxxxxxxxxxxx <
xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> >
> > I don't know the half of the capabilities of the tool, I am sure there
> are good reasons why it is the gold standard and in fact this observation
> is not about oxygen specifically. But what I am saying is that without
> debugging facilities these stylesheet monstrosities could never be created
> and (one would like to think) their creators may weel be be forced into
> better software engineering practices.
>
> On the contrary, I frequently work with stylesheet monstrosities created
> without any help from such tools.
>
> At least if you have the tools you have some hope of developing a
> sufficient understanding of the monstrosity to attempt a refactoring, and
> the tools will also help with the refactoring.
>
>
Yes they do help with such refactoring although that is not to say it
cannot be done without them.

The point is not so much in the creation. The availability of debugging
facilities in these tools give these montrosities a longevity that they
would not otherwise have because  long after they would otherwise be
regarded as unmanageable people can avoid the refactoring and  keep
tinkering with and updating them.