Re: [xslt] Executing xslt scripts

[Derek Poon <dpoon ocf berkeley edu>]

On 26 Jan 2006, at 14:30 , Scott Bronson wrote:

> [...]
> That file is perfectly valid XML with a shebang line at the top.   
> Since
> a shebang will never, ever appear in well-formed XML anyway, I  
> don't see
> what the issue is.  It doesn't break the spec.  It just allows  
> xsltproc
> to process another type of file.

Those are some self-contradictory statements.  A file that starts  
with #! is no longer valid XML.  http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC- 
xml-20040204/#sec-well-formed


> Maybe I didn't explain very well... Liferea allows the user to  
> select a
> transform script using the standard file dialog.  However, because
> xsltproc can't handle scripts marked executable, Liferea must *also*
> inlcude a way for the user to type in a command line.
>
> For many (most?) Gnome users, selecting a script in a file dialog is
> trivial, typing in a command line is unheard of.  Easier?  It's
> night-and-day easier!

I agree with the idea that if Liferea supports feed filtering at all,  
then the UI should make it as easy as simply selecting an .xsl file.   
In fact, I once submitted a patch to embed libxslt in Liferea:
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/? 
func=detail&atid=581686&aid=1197414&group_id=87005

The maintainer says that he has implemented an alternative solution  
that involves executing xsltproc externally.  I haven't tried this  
feature since I no longer use Liferea.  If it doesn't work, you  
should file a bug on Liferea that references bug 1197414.


> It's not the number of arguments that forces me to write a shell  
> script.
> It's the fact that I can't launch an xslt script simply by specifying
> the file.  If xsltproc would ignore the shebang line, then everything
> would just work.
>
> I guess I don't understand your resistance, Daniel.  As far as I can
> see, the upside is that it makes it much easier for non-technical  
> users
> to run xslt transforms.  And the downside is...?  That xsltproc will
> accept a type of file that it wouldn't accept before?

Contaminating your .xsl files with a Unix-specific header that makes  
them invalid XML is not the way to enhance usability.  (Would you  
prepend #!/usr/local/bin/netscape to all of your HTML files so that  
they would open in Netscape when double-clicked?)  Bastardizing  
xsltproc to support that kind of non-conformance would be even more  
tragic.  If Liferea makes filtering hard, then Liferea should be fixed.

Derek