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"Remove mentions of XSLT from the html spec"

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Re: "Remove mentions of XSLT from the html spec"

#71
post #40

Do we know Webkit, KHTML and Gecko's stand on this? I know this is for security reason but why not update the XSLT implementation instead. And if feature that aren't used get dropped, they might as well do it all in one good. I am sure lots of HTML spec aren't even used.

WebKit's in favor: https://github.com/whatwg/html/issues/11523#issuecomment-314...

Re: "Remove mentions of XSLT from the html spec"

#72
post #32

I had no idea what XSLT even was until today. Reading the submission, the thread linked by u/troupo below, and Wikipedia, I find that it's apparently used in RSS parsing by browsers, because RSS is XML and then XSLT is "originally designed for transforming XML documents into other XML documents" so it can turn the XML feed into an HTML page I agree RSS parsing is nice to have built into browsers. (Just like FTP suppo…

XSLT was the blockchain, nft, metaverse of the mid?-2000s. Was totally going to solve all of our problems.

Re: "Remove mentions of XSLT from the html spec"

#74
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand that there are more possible uses for the tool, but RSS is the only one I saw someone mention. Are there more examples? It may be that I don't notice when I use it, if the page just translates itself into XHTML and I would never know until opening the developer tools (which I do often, fwiw: so many web forms are broken that I have a habit of opening F12, so I always still have my form entries in the net…

It's by far the easiest way to do templated pages. I use it for my personal stuff (e.g. photo albums I share with my mom), but I can't imagine Google cares about the non-commercial web. I think I've read some governments still use it, which would make sense since they usually don't have a super high budget for tons of developers, so they have to stick to the easy way to do things.

Right, that sounds like a blind spot of mine as well. We test nearly only commercial products (or open source projects large enough to get commercial backing), and in private time, of course I'd come across big websites sooner than across small ones. Still, I'm surprised I never even heard of it (also considering we literally had a class on XML and the features, like these DTDs that I never found a use for in the decade since). Sounds like I should look into XSLT, since I also build a lot of small tools and simple old tech is generally right up my alley!

Re: "Remove mentions of XSLT from the html spec"

#75

This is actually not a bad idea. Why should the browser contain a specific template engine, like XSLT, and not Jinja for example? Also it can be reimplemented using JS or WASM. The browsers today are too bloated and it is difficult to create a new browser engine. I wish there were simpler standards for "minimal browser", for example, supporting only basic HTML tags, basic layout rules, WASM and Java bytecode. Many th…

So instead of a complete browser engine we get a basic engine and we need to write the complete on top of it?

Re: "Remove mentions of XSLT from the html spec"

#76
post #72
post #32

I had no idea what XSLT even was until today. Reading the submission, the thread linked by u/troupo below, and Wikipedia, I find that it's apparently used in RSS parsing by browsers, because RSS is XML and then XSLT is "originally designed for transforming XML documents into other XML documents" so it can turn the XML feed into an HTML page I agree RSS parsing is nice to have built into browsers. (Just like FTP suppo…

XSLT was the blockchain, nft, metaverse of the mid?-2000s. Was totally going to solve all of our problems.

But XSLT is at least actually useful

Re: "Remove mentions of XSLT from the html spec"

#77
post #50
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also related, now flagged: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44949857 Google is killing the open web, today, 127 comments

Why flagged? The post was reasonable.

Probably labeling a removal of a format (which is somewhat niche anyway) as "killing the open web" was a bit hyperbolic and not entirely warranted in this case.

Imagine that tomorrow, Google announces plans to stop supporting HTML and move everyone to its own version of "CompuServe", delivered only via Google Fiber and accessible only with Google Chrome. What headline would you suggest for that occasion? "Google is killing the open web" has already been used today on an article about upcoming deprecation of XSLT format.

Re: "Remove mentions of XSLT from the html spec"

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet, the web has been prospering for two decades in spite of the quasi-monopoly state of browsers. It's the living evidence that the dominant browser vendor doesn't has as much power as people imagine.

The web has been prospering?

"One of the most adopted technologies, the one that is permeating into even native desktop and mobile apps, is not prospering." - HN users, probably.
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