Advanced XML/XSLT Training

[atxryan]

I'm searching for a great XML/XSLT training course that my company can
send me to and, while I'm finding a lot that offer on-site training,
I'm not finding too many which offer classes by city. I want to go to a
training company location, rather bring someone in for a custom
training class.

Anyone have any recommendations?

-RYAN

 

[Joe Kesselman]

Haven't worked with any for-hire training, so if that's what you really
want I can't offer advice.

There's a lot of good free info available, you know; I'm biased, but my
standard pointer is to the tutorials on IBM's DeveloperWorks website.

Note that you should probably figure out what you want to do with XML
first; that will provide motivation, focus, and help you select which
topics are going to be most important for your specific applications.

 

[atxryan]

Thanks, Joe.

I am looking for-hire training though. Preferably in a fun city. ;-)

I have a decent grasp of XML/XSLT/XPATH from work I've done in the past
and books/online references I've read. What I'm looking for is to fill
in the gaps and extend my abilities past the simple implementations.

-RYAN

 

[Andy Dingley]

I'm searching for a great XML/XSLT training course

Haven't seen one. XSLT is _hard_, and it's not tied to a particular
product domain, such as configuring Cisco routers. This combination of
hard and generalised has never been a fertile one for off-the-shelf
courses. Chances are that you may well already be in advance of
anything that's out there. The profitable market for offering training
like this is in the bulk courses, not the heavyweight stuff.

You might find it useful to inquire with the serious XSLT consultants
(try Jenni Tennison in the UK) -- maybe they either offer, or know of.
high-level courses.

 

[Peter Flynn]

I'm searching for a great XML/XSLT training course that my company can
send me to

You just missed the best The CSW XML SummerSchool
(see http://www.xmlsummerschool.com).

///Peter

 

[Joe Kesselman]

Haven't seen one. XSLT is _hard_

I don't think so, actually; it just requires a different approach than
the programming languages folks are most familiar with. It's best to
think of it in terms of pattern-matching ("whenever you see this,
replace it with that") rather than procedural programming ("do this,
then do that").

But, yes, it's a real programming language (I believe XSLT is
turing-complete) and so you have to learn to work methodically and to
break problems up into managable parts. You need to understand the
concept of recursion, since as a single-assignment/functional language
XSLT works in that mode in places where other languages would write
loops. And there are some tasks where XSLT -- especially XSLT 1.0 --
really doesn't have an "obvious" solution and the fastest thing to do is
to look at one of the XSLT Frequently Asked Questions documents to see
how folks have solved similar problems in the past.

But nothing's going to make you an expert programmer overnight, in any
language; seeing more examples helps, but it really needs practice.

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?J=FCrgen_Kahrs?=]

I don't think so, actually; it just requires a different approach than
the programming languages folks are most familiar with. It's best to

Yes, "a different approach", that's _hard_.
Honestly, most developers learn one language when they
are young, and everything differing from this language
is _hard_ to understand for them.

think of it in terms of pattern-matching ("whenever you see this,
replace it with that") rather than procedural programming ("do this,
then do that").

That's funny, I know a language which is also based
on pattern-matching in the same way (awk). This other
language is also very effective, looks so natural to
some of, but is _hard_ for most developers.

break problems up into managable parts. You need to understand the
concept of recursion, since as a single-assignment/functional language

In most courses on software development, recursion is
non-existant, because it only scares humble newbies.
Any language _requiring_ you to understand recursion will
never be a mainstream language. Simply because of user-habits
and not because _I_ am too stupid for using recursion.

But nothing's going to make you an expert programmer overnight, in any
language; seeing more examples helps, but it really needs practice.

Right.

 

[Joe Kesselman]

Yes, "a different approach", that's _hard_.
Honestly, most developers learn one language when they
are young, and everything differing from this language
is _hard_ to understand for them.

Hm. Maybe I was lucky; my education focused on "learning how to learn"
and included exposure to a variety of languages using different syntax
and metaphors.

I really don't agree that it's hard. It just requires exposure to a few
new concepts and a bit of practice. Admittedly, some folks resist both.

In most courses on software development, recursion is
non-existant, because it only scares humble newbies.

I respectfully disagree that any course which doesn't cover recursion is
a class on "software development". It's a basic programming technique,
used in all languages when you have nontrivial problems to solve.

The problem here may be that serious XSLT is real programming, not
script hacking.

 

[Dimitre Novatchev]

The problem here may be that serious XSLT is real programming, not script

hacking.

People that are saying "XSLT is hard" generalize too much.

XSLT is hard the same way writing English text is hard -- for definite
groups of people.

On the other side, XSLT is not hard at all, it is fun.

Just look at FXSL and see what can be accomplished with XSLT.

I agree that for people, who find it hard to think, XSLT will be really
hard -- as it requires one to think.


Cheers,
Dimitre Novatchev

 

[Andy Dingley]

You just missed the best The CSW XML SummerSchool
(see http://www.xmlsummerschool.com).

Say Hi! to Gary Cornelius for me

(I always thought he was destined for great things)