Extensible Stylesheet Language for Transformations and XPath

Manipulation and Matching. Now that you have a basic understanding of XML's fundamental rules, you are ready to begin to work with XSL Transformations. This is where the power and versatility of XML really becomes apparent. In fact, XSLT's syntax is the same as that of XML. In addition, if you are familiar with the system of how files on a computer are stored in a hierarchy of folders within other folders contained on a hard drive, then keep this in mind because the nesting (cf. rule #1 above) of XML tags is accessible the same way by how XPath works in XSLT.

Fundamentally, consider XSLT as you would vidhaana (vi + -dhaa - to distribute, to put variously, sort), both literally and figuratively. Vidhaana is to suutra as XSLT is to XML document, specifically, that is—and for the references in this article—insofar as injunctions for mantras to be used in a ritual. Another term for the manipulation of mantra, addressed specifically below, also applies to one possible use of XSLT, viharaNam (referring to the intertwining of portions of a mantra). I will return to this below, and the conceptual applicability of the analogy becomes clearer viz. mantra in the third section.

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