Re: [xml-dev] XSL and related specifications

Historically, the W3C XSL Working Group produced a draft specification under the name "XSL," which eventually split into three parts:

XSL Transformation (XSLT): an XML language for transforming XML documents
XSL Formatting Objects (XSL-FO): an XML language for specifying the visual formatting of an XML document
XML Path Language (XPath): a non-XML language used by XSLT, and also available for use in non-XSLT contexts, for addressing the parts of an XML document.

As a result, the term "XSL" is now used with a number of different meanings:

Sometimes it refers to XSLT: this usage is best avoided. However, "xsl" is used both as the conventional namespace prefix for the XSLT namespace, and as the conventional filename suffix for files containing XSLT stylesheet modules
Sometimes it refers to XSL-FO: this usage can be justified by the fact that the XSL-FO specification carries the title Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL); however, the term XSL-FO is less likely to be misunderstood
Sometimes it refers to both languages considered together, or to the working group that develops [=> developed] both languages
Sometimes, especially in the Microsoft world, it refers to a now-obsolete variant of XSLT developed and shipped by Microsoft as part of MSXML before the W3C specification was finalized

Michael Kay

Saxonica

On 20 Apr 2023, at 06:30, l@tlo <lists@traduction-libre.org> wrote:

Richard Ishida gave me a contact at the W3C, so maybe we would take some time to discuss what would be relevant to change on that page?

Jean-Christophe

https://www.w3.org/Style/XSL/

says:

XSL is a family of recommendations for defining XML document transformation and presentation. It consists of three parts:

- XSL Transformations (XSLT)
a language for transforming XML;

- The XML Path Language (XPath)
an expression language used by XSLT (and many other languages) to access or refer to parts of an XML document;

- XSL Formatting Objects (XSL-FO)
an XML vocabulary for specifying formatting semantics.

but the link from XSL-FO points at https://www.w3.org/TR/xsl11/

where it says:

This specification defines the features and syntax for the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL), a language for expressing stylesheets. It consists of two parts:

- a language for transforming XML documents (XSLT), and

- an XML vocabulary for specifying formatting semantics.

Is that vocabulary XSL-FO? It's a bit confusing.

On Apr 14, 2023, at 19:26, Norm Tovey-Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com> wrote:

I can't imagine the W3 contact for that activity is not on this
list...

W3C closed the XML Activity so I don’t think there *is* a contact anymore.

Be seeing you,
norm

--
Norm Tovey-Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>
https://norm.tovey-walsh.com/

Anything more than the truth would be too much.--Robert Frost

--
Jean-Christophe Helary @jchelary@emacs.ch
https://traductaire-libre.org
https://mac4translators.blogspot.com
https://sr.ht/~brandelune/omegat-as-a-book/

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