XSLT with LaTeX [closed]

Question

Closed. This question needs to be more focused. It is not currently accepting answers.

---

Want to improve this question? Update the question so it focuses on one problem only by editing this post.

Closed 8 years ago.

Improve this question

I am doing a project on Exam Paper Generator

Research: Ul Design, XML Mark-Up Formatting, XSLT transformation of XML documents, LaTeX

Description: This project looks at creating an easy-to-use exam paper generator that allows lecturers to generate exam questions without worrying about getting the prescribed format right.

Can anyone explain to me how the system really work? I had researched on XSL Transformation and XML and I can't see how XSLT could link with LaTeX.

Can anyone open my eyes on this matter? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

At a purely mechanical level, XSLT can generate text output. It's usually used to generate XML or HTML, but it can be useful for mapping XML to text as well. Lead with the xsl:output command:

<xsl:output method="text"/>

Recognize elements and draw values from the input XML using the usual XSLT techniques, and output LaTeX using the xsl:text command.

However at a higher level, a system that uses XSLT to produce LaTeX would most likely take XML as input, but doing this to achieve the goal of generating "exam questions without worrying about getting the prescribed format right" may be misguided: Users would still have to get the XML format right. Perhaps you mean to back up further to a better user interface to writing exam papers altogether? If so, XSLT is not the essence of the problem, really.

Note that TeX and LaTeX have balanced the tradeoff between abstract simplicity and detailed control successfully for a long time. To do better will require more than a plan to introduce XML or XSLT.

Finally, note also that LaTeX already serves your goal with respect to TeX itself. Have you considered leveraging existing LaTeX work in the area of exam production?

• exam – Pack­age for type­set­ting exam scripts
• Exam design – LATEX class for typesetting exams

Either of these might serve as a target of your upstream work. Users of these packages might also be worth querying to understand how their needs are or are not being met currently.