XSL 2.0 talk at XML Prague 2010

To say that progress on xmlroff is behind my expectations would be an
understatement.  At one point, I'd figured that by now we'd be looking
at how to fit xmlroff to doing XSL 2.0.  Sadly, the XSL 2.0 page [2] on
the xmlroff website still just has two links on it.

So, in the tradition of putting the cart before the horse, I put
together a proposal for a talk on XSL 2.0 implementation concerns for
XML Prague 2010 [1] without having either an implementation or a plan
for an implementation.

I barely made it onto the programme: the reviewers all thought it was
interesting, but even I knew it hardly matched the conference's themes.

Anyway, here's the title and abstract:

   Arrow to Octopus: What XSL 2.0 means for implementers and users

   The block diagram for XSL 1.0 and XSL 1.1 was fairly straightforward:
   source XML, an arrow, FO markup, an arrow, then formatted output. The
   official block diagram for XSL 2.0 doesn't yet exist, but indications
   are that it will be closer to an octopus or even a Klein Bottle than
   it is to the arrowed lines of the current diagram.

   The requirements for XSL 2.0 includes features such as animations,
   feedback from the pagination stage, formatting of document
   collections, variable-sized regions, and positioning objects relative
   to each other.

   A recitation of the features selected for XSL 2.0 may roll over you
   with the occasional spark of interest for some of the features, but
   an implementer has to consider the full gamut of features when
   designing a formatter -- irrespective of whether the features will be
   in the first releases, they all still have to be considered. This
   presentation by an implementer and member of the subgroup working on
   XSL 2.0 discusses the changes that will have to take place under the
   hood of any XSL formatter that supports XSL 2.0 and what those
   additional capabilities can bring to your stylesheets.

Suggestions and comments on how to go about doing XSL 2.0 are welcome.

Regards,


Tony.

[1] http://www.xmlprague.cz/2010/index.html
[2] http://xmlroff.org/wiki/XSL20