XSLT Class

Last Monday through last Wednesday I attended Mulberry Technologies’ XSLT course. I had a fun time, and learned a bunch.

To prepare, I looked through a few books. I looked through Jeni Tennison’s Beginning XSLT 2.0 book, but it wasn’t for me. I didn’t like how wordy it was… I got lost in the dialogue, and it distracted me from the points and the examples. On the otherhand, Doug Tidwell’s book, XSLT-Mastering XML Tranformations was precisely what I was looking for. It was concise and organized very methodically. PLUS, it only cost me $7 with shipping from Amazon. Heh, gotta love that!

[note: because we only use 1.0 on the job, older books were better, as I didn’t have to figure out what was a 2.0 feature and what was a 1.0 feature… and again, the books were cheaper]

Fun stuff aside, XSLT is a pretty cool language. I’m too new to it to debate if it is a functional programming language or simply based on those attributes, but I’m happy to get to play with its functional aspects. I am kinda thrilled to dust off my recursive-function-writing skills. I hope to use it early and often, so I can get a good amount of practice in.

The class was useful because it showed me things I didn’t pick up from the books. First was the concept that the root node is placed above what I called the XML root node. The class called the XML root node the “document node.” Solved one problem that I had been having. The other really enlightening aspect was the axes. When I read the book and saw that there 13, I simply skimmed it. It was good to sit down with , as the following:: and preceding:: axes were not what I thought.

Debbie Lapeyre and Wendell Piez, the instructors, were great and worked with us to answer all of our questions… even my weird set theory questions. Wendell, in particular (because he led the third day) was helpful, showing me some of the common “hacks” people use to make 1.0 do things it wasn’t intended to do [despite my incredibly poorly phrased question!]. Now that I can understand XPath a little better, I can break down the pieces of the hacks… so things like the Muenchian method actually make sense now.

Hopefully I will get to keep working with XSLT’s, I’m definitely not an expert from three days. But since they’re core to the portal system I work with, I expect to get a lot more practice in. If I get good enough, I’d love to post some information that may be useful to others. Stay tuned!

Game 7: I think Kenny Lofton was out at second

From the views that you will see on all of the replays, you will see Kenny Lofton’s hand getting to the bag before Pedroia’s tag touches him. That I will give you. However, from my view point, the point at which the Indians left fielder was out was AFTER that… when his hands both came up off the bag, and I could see no part of him touching second base. His hands shot over the base, and because he doesn’t weigh 300 pounds, his chest was not touching the bag.

I would like to see another view, and will be the first to admit that I may be biased. I tried watching it on Sportscenter, but they cut away before you could see his hands leave the bag. Objectively, however, I believe that the umpire could have seen this, and that would be the basis of the call. His hand was in there first, but did he stay on the base? I think not.

Regardless, it was a teriffic play by Manny. Despite stupid Tim McCarver’s near constant (and just plain wrong) assertions that Manny may as well be playing without a glove, he made yet another great play off the wall because of his expert knowledge (and regular practice!) on the wall in left. I am thrilled that they are going to the series. Leave it to me to travel up there to see the one game they lose at home. But I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

Concert Tonight

I’ve got a concert tongiht. Check out the Columbia Orchestra site for details. Tchaikovsky 4, along with Strauss’ first Horn Concerto, and a Brandenburg. Should be pretty good, especially since I’ve practiced a fair amount for this.

I don’t expect anyone I know to come, as there is also something going on in Boston tonight. Some sort of baseball game?

So yea, come and see me torn. Don’t expect me to hang around after the concert for any more than a second though.

Class over

I am finished my XSLT class, and learned some very interesting things. Very cool the way some of the features of the language fit within the context of Scheme (and Lisp, for that matter). More to come.

Whirlwind

Tonight I am packing for Boston. Red Sox ALCS game 2 is tomorrow evening, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I was looking forward to visiting my friend Kacy, but I haven’t been able to get in touch with her yet. Kristen, my other Boston cello-playing girl has been in touch, and we’re probably going to hang out while I am up there.

Alas, because of my (stupid) XSLT class Monday morning, I have to leave on Sunday evening, so I don’t really get to see much. This is upsetting, as I haven’t been to Boston in YEARS. The part that makes it especially upsetting is that I still remember most of what I did the last time I was there.