Leathrum

From Better Practices

[edit] XSLT Project to Implement LaTeX Document Structure

My project to put together a XSLT stylesheet to mimic some of the LaTeX document structure environments has gotten away from me the further I got into it this summer. I wanted to think of the stylesheet as a way of simplifying XHTML but keeping many of the basic elements of XHTML. The problem is that once I get into an environment defined in the XSLT, everything inside that environment has to come from the XSLT. I had planned on having an outer "<document>...</document>" environment to handle a lot of the XHTML header and footer info, but then everything inside that outer environment had to come from the XSLT. That meant that the XSLT had to remap XHTML stuff like <p>...</p> and <table>...</table>. I can still pursue that approach, and it can be made to work, but I would also have to remap all of the MathML and SVG stuff on top of that. It just turned into more of a chore than I had expected. I also pursued other approaches that wouldn't require all of that remapping, but that got me into DTD's and other of the W3C's "dark arts". I really feel out of my element there.

So I want you to do something for me at the "best practices" workshop that is coming up. Can you feel out the participants to see if they want me to continue to pursue the XSLT approach to the stylesheet? It would allow some potentially important editorial decisions about what environments to allow (e.g. remap <em> and <strong> but not <i> and <b>, or remap Content MathML elements but not Presentation MathML elements). I would picture, as I said, an outer <document>...</document> environment, along with environments like <theorem>...</theorem>, <proof>...</proof>, and <definition>...</definition>, but keeping a lot of the XHTML environments like <p>...</p> and <table>...</table> as I mentioned before. Another issue, which I had originally figured would be the hardest thing to tackle, would be how to handle citations and references. (Should I follow something like a BibTeX model, or remap someone else's already fully-formed XML bibliography style, or go for something simpler?)

I had envisioned using the stylesheet in conjunction with the translator applet, so the idea of allowing Content MathML but not Presentation MathML appeals to me. I would also like to ask you to see if the workshop participants have any feedback for me about the translator applet.

I will be incommunicado for the next week and a half or so during some family travels. Let me know how the workshop goes.

Regards,
Tom Leathrum