A DSSSL Development Environment
I have already mentioned jade, James Clark's DSSSL engine. If you are using Microsoft Windows, you can build yourself an almost perfect free development environment using the following software packages (for other platforms you may need to compile the jade source code, which is also freely available):
- • jade-This package can be downloaded from James Clark's Web site at http://www.jclark.com/jade.
- • PFE (programmers' file editor)-This package can be downloaded from the author Alan Philips' site at Lancaster University in England at http://www.lancs.ac.uk/people/cpaap/pfe/pfefiles.htm.
PFE is much more than a text editor (although it excels at that too). It can do a lot of extremely useful things like recording key strokes, matching brackets, executing a DOS command and capturing the result in a window, and a lot more.
When I am experimenting with DSSSL code (the only way to learn!), I load the source code (XML, SGML, or even HTML) into one text window. I load the DSSSL style sheet into a second window and then I load the jade error output file into a third window. I then use a command line window to enter the jade commands (see Figure 19.1). I use 4NT because it is far more powerful than any of its competitors (you can find 4NT via http://www.jpsoft.com), but you can just as easily use a standard MS-DOS command prompt window. Note that for technical reasons this screen capture is made at a resolution of only 800×600; at my normal 1152´864 you see a lot more of the file contents.
PFE is able to recognize when the jade error log file changes. I keep to a standard error.log name for this file to make it easier to clean up afterwards. After running a jade command, switching back to PFE prompts you to reload the error log file. You can easily track down any errors by toggling the PFE file display to show the line numbers in the problem file.
Of course, this isn't the only environment. If you're prepared to spend some time getting it all set up, EMACS has a DSSSL mode but its use, while extremely powerful in skilled hands, is not something for the faint hearted.