"Siegfried Heintze" <siegfried@h...> wrote in message 
news:uJh2QIkDJHA.4428@T......
> We have an existing application written in C++ that displays bitmaps 
> (pixmaps, actually) on an embedded USB device. They chose C++ because they 
> tell me C++ is better for communicating with devices than C# (so they tell 
> me -- I did not make this decision).
>
> We wanted to use XAML to render our diagrams for our application. We 
> posted a query in the WPF forum and a response pointed us to the 
> documentation for hosting a XAML/WPF application in a C++ GUI. However, 
> they said that WPF does not use device contexts: it uses direct X 
> rendering contexts so writing to a bit map was difficult and slow. I'll 
> look into it further.
>
> My team leader tells me to start investigating reinventing XAML by means 
> of an XSLT that will generate C++ gdiplus code from XAML or SVG code.
>
> Hmmmm....
>
> So here is an example of some SVG code which is extremely similar to XAML 
> code:
> <path 
> d="M11.083,10.631l0.34-0.143l-1.247-3.032l1.305-0.114l-1.56-1.559L8.447,4.281L7.88,4.338L2.296,4.323c-0.195,0-0.354,0.159-0.354,0.355L0.709,3.629h9.212v1.332l2.384,2.408c0.053,0.053,0.083,0.125,0.083,0.199c0,0.146-0.11,0.269-0.255,0.283l-1.162,0.114l1.084,2.556c0.014,0.035,0.021,0.071,0.021,0.109c0,0.114-0.069,0.219-0.175,0.262l-0.618,0.248"/>
>
> The "M" means move to the absolute coordinates. "l" means lineto the next 
> relative coordinates, "c" means to make a simple bezier curve with 
> relative coordinates, etc... We have miles of this stuff we were going to 
> render with XAML and now I have to render with C++.
>
> So finally, here is my question: can I use standard XSL to parse that path 
> statement and generate C++ code or would I have to use non-standard 
> scripting (C#?) embedded in the XSL file to decypher it? I wish I could 
> steal the source code for the FireFox SVG rendering engine!
>
> Thanks!
> Siegfried
>
Other than the fact that your team leader expects you to accomplish single 
handedly what dozens of Microsoft developers took many months to create I 
think it can be done.
It would be a lot easier in XSLT 2.0 which has better string handling 
though, in version 1.0 you'd need extension functions which can be written 
in a number of languages depending on which processor you choose.
The main contender for a version 2.0 processor is probably Saxon which can 
run on Java or .NET.

-- 

Joe Fawcett (MVP - XML)
http://joe.fawcett.name