vncntj@h... wrote:

> let's say i have an xml file like so....
> http://www.afp.com/english/rss/stories.xml
> 
> 
> is there an easy way to apply a generic style sheet to it???  so that
> if any other link was to be uploaded the xsl could be applied to it??

The problem is, what's "generic"? That particular file is RSS, so it's
designed to be opened in a feedreader like Sage (or any of 1,000 other
RSS applications). And each one will display it differently.

But if you wanted to do something else with it, there cannot by 
definition be any "generic" solution, because everyone will want it to 
look different. Sky News might want the title and description to be
turned into a marching display (what IE curiously calls a "marquee") to 
scroll R-L across the bottom of the screen. But they might also want the
same text to be popped up on the autocue in 200pt sans for a newsflash.
A news analyst, however, might want to format each one as a traditional
text block with a headline to print on paper and read in the train on 
the way home; or as cue-card pages to download into her PDA; or as a
voice-markup XML file for a blind friend to have spoken.

The confusing point about standard generalized markup languages like XML 
is that it's the syntax which is generalized (pointy brackets), not the 
semantics (the meaning of the names between them). There Ain't No 
Justice might well be paraphrased as There Ain't No Jenerics.

///Peter
-- 
XML FAQ: http://xml.silmaril.ie/