Joe Kesselman wrote:

> Andy Dingley wrote:
>> 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

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.