| On Fri, 18 Jul 1997, Simon Cox wrote:
| > In an earlier posting which sank without a trace (I shouldn't
| > have changed the "Subject" field, I guess) I also raised
| > what I think is a related question about mechanisms
| > for doing the translations between DC and other formats.
| > If I am not mistaken, if XML/SGML were used for encoding,
| > then this should be manageable with generic tools using DSSSL?
| > Or am I really chasing herrings up the wrong tree??
|
| Now I'll be the first to admit that I know precious little about DSSSL but
| isn't that more to do with style sheets? A sort of CSS on acid? I can't
| quite stretch my mind around how style sheets interact with resource type
| metadata. Of course if I've misunderstood what DSSSL is, this is a great
| time for someone to explain it to the list... :-)
|
You will find much more cogent explanations of DSSSL via comp.text.sgml
than I am likely to be able to provide, but one of the functions of
DSSSL is transformation of documents marked up according to one DTD into
one marked up by a different DTD. This includes DTDs that are largely
descriptive in nature (AKA style sheets). As a whole, however, DSSSL is
more like SGML on acid. You can get headaches very quickly trying to see
what's really going on. Liam Quin can probably state this with rather
more authority than I can. All I know is that every time I think I
understand the standard I read it again and realise I don't.
On the other hand, you can't transform semantics out of nothing, so if
you are going from a simple DC scheme to something like MARC, you may be
out of luck even with DSSSL.
For those who would like to learn more about dsssl tools, James Clark
(of groff/sgmls/sp authorship) has a beta suite called jade on his web
site (www.jclark.com)
My $.02
---
Brian Denehy, Internet: [log in to unmask]
IT Services MHSnet: [log in to unmask]
Australian Defence Force Academy UUCP:!uunet!munnari.oz.au!cc.adfa.oz.au!bvd
Northcott Dr. Campbell ACT Australia 2600 +61 6 268 8141 +61 6 268 8150 (Fax)
|