Document Style and Specification Language

A Scheme (ProgrammingLanguageScheme) based, functional (ie.e., side effect free) tree transformation and ~attribution language combined with a layout specification semantic defined in SGML.

(That is, it's actually a grove http://www.google.com/search?q=DSSSL+grove ) transformation language. For a definition, what groves are see http://www.ornl.gov/sgml/wg8/docs/n1920/html/clause-A.4.html illustrated example: http://www.cogsci.ed.ac.uk/~ht/grove.html )

The original intend was to define visual presentations for trees (documents) marked up (defined) in SGML. As you see, in the context of Askemos it is primarly consider it a tree transformation language.

DSSSL is the ancestor of XSL, which is basicly the same (but simplified, hence eventually better) two things (XSLT and XSL-FO) defined in XML.

Turtorials:

The DSSSL namespace

http://www.askemos.org/2000/NameSpaceDSSSL

More Info

For more details see http://beauvoir.phil.unc.edu/groves

The DSSSLprocedure library

James Clark has compiled some links http://www.jclark.com/dsssl/

Didier P H Martin runs articles about DSSSL, openjade etc. at http://www.netfolder.com/DSSSL .