December 12, 2004

Could it be that we are drawn to XSLT *BECAUSE* it's difficult to learn?

Magic Bean Dip ? Blog Archive ? Unencoded Amazon Web Service data makes XSLT abort

While sitting at the Skamania Lodge bar and surrounded by a sea of gawking fans (actually I think it was just me, Adam Kinney, and possibly Steve Maine but I can’t be certain… I was too mesmerized by the moment ;) Tim Bray declared that to understand XSLT you must first reach up with both hands and grab the two halves of your brain peeling each back until you have successfully turned your brain completely inside out (I wish I could remember the exact quote as it was a lot better than my description… Tim, if you happen to read this could you please give us the official “Tim Bray’s Definitive Guide to Understanding XSLT” description… for the record :)

To further add fuel to Tim’s descriptive fire according to Mike “The Magic Bean Dip” Majorowicz:

“For reasons I’m not completely sure of, I’m a fan of XSLT. There are times when I actually enjoy trying to figure out ways to do things in XSLT that would be simple in other languages. I use Lagoon and XML/XSLT to maintain a website for my wife’s artwork. I’ll admit that my fondness for XSLT may be masochistic, but I draw the line at trying to process unpredictable data with XSLT.”

If you follow the above link you’ll have a better understanding of that last line but taking things further could The Bean be on to something here…?

Are we all masochists???!!!

I will definitely add my name to the list of hackers who finds pleasure in seeking a way to do with XSLT (e.g. string manipulation) what would equate to 2 or 3 lines of Perl. But that’s true for any hacker and his or her favorite language. Pushing the envelope is a true hackers nature… It’s what makes a hacker a hacker! It’s what seperates the men from the boys’, the addicts from the recreationists, the hackers from those in whom truly believe writing code starts at 9 and ends at 5… (If you find yourself looking for clarification as to whether I mean 9am or 9pm chances are good you’re a hacker ;) [Just to clarify… To a true hacker writing code starts at noon and ends when you pass out.]

Still, I most definitely think that Mr. Masochistic, err, Majorowicz could be on to something… and it seems this something is a something Mr. Bray has known all along…

Stupid Simple It Keep! (oddly, KISS spells SSIK backwards…. hmmmm.)