Question

The use of XSLT (XML Stylesheet Language Transform) has never seen the same popularity of many of the other languages that came out during the internet boom. While it is in use, and in some cases by large successful companies (i.e. Blizzard Entertainment), it has never seemed to reach mainstream. Why do you think this is?

Answer 1

One problem is that XSLT looks complicated. Any developer should be able to pick up the language constructs as there are analogs in most other languages. The problem is that the constructs and data all look exactly the same which makes it difficult to distinguish between the two which makes XSLT more difficult to read than other languges.

A second issue is that the uses for it are more limited than other languages. XSLT is great at what it does; making complicated or radical transformations on XML. But it doesn’t apply to as wide a range of problems as other languages, so it is not used as much.

Third, many programming languages have their own libraries for transforming XML. Much of the time when working with XML, only small changes or lookups are needed. The XML is also probably being generated or consumed by a program the developer is already writing in another language. These factors mean that using a language’s built in utilities is just more convenient.

Another problem that all of these issues contribute to is inertia. That is, people don’t know it, they don’t see that they have much need for it, so they avoid it as a solution if there is another option.

What you end up with is a language that is the last choice of many developers when creating solutions. It is likely that XSLT is even avoided when it would be the best tool for the job as a result.