xslt is a fickle, fickle friend

I'm spending this weekend learning the ins and outs of XSLT. I got to thinking earlier this week that this RSS Reader I've been working on could really benefit from only having to parse one style of XML. So now all I have to do is create some XSL transforms that will convert from the nine different formats of RSS into my desired XML format so that my application can read various types of feeds. It amazes me how many various forms of RSS are out there, and with barely any similarity between most of them. I'm concentrating my efforts right now on RSS versions 0.91, 1.0, and 2.0 since they seem to be the most popular.

I've never had a reason to work with XSL and XSLT before, so I'm also having to learn that as I go. I think it's perhaps XPath and the concept of XML namespaces that's given me the most trouble so far, but after a fair amount of study this morning and plenty of trial and error, I feel that I might be starting to grasp the basics. XSLT is a really powerful technology, but it's surprising that there aren't more tools out there to assist in creating the documents. Perhaps I've just been spoiled by some of the IDEs I'm accustomed to working with...:)

Later today, we're going to try to go see 'The Passion' movie. I stress the word try because I've heard that many of the local churches are buying up entire showings for this movie. I'm really excited about seeing it, so hopefully we'll manage to get a couple of seats!