🚀 go-pugleaf

> That was my conclusion, but I had this sense that I was missing the boat.
> If XML isn't good for this kind of thing, then what is it good for?

I would say that XML is fine for the transfer of structured data between
different systems. In the InDesign Classroom in a Book there is a very good
example on how to use the XML features of InDesign, but I found it in my
tests very limited in layout issues for the tasks I have to do (but maybe
I'm missing something and XML is the unseen solution for all my problems).
The charming thing in the above mentioned example is the possibility to
easily use the XML data for further processing for a web page or an
electronic catalog. But if I have the data in a database, I can easily do
the same.

> With all the hoo-hah that's been going on, clients are likely to ask if I
can
> process XML. Well, at least I now know enough to say yes, but my
> processing would largely consist of using BBedit to convert the XML tags
> to paragraph style tags!

So where is the difference between your semi-manual conversion, the
conversion done by a tool of mine and the XML-native conversion via XSLT?
This are all legitime methods to transfer the XML data to the data you need.
Always have in mind that XML isn't an All-In-Wonder-Solution, but only a
method to transfer data between systems and some sort of a data source, like
a database file or whereever you get the data from your customer.

Jens