title: Is XSLT worth it?
body: <p>A while ago, I started on a project where I designed a html-esque XML schema so that authors could write their content (educational course material) in a simplified format which would then be transformed into HTML via XSLT. I played around (struggled) with it for a while and got it to a very basic level but then was too annoyed by the limitations I was encountering (which may well have been limitations of my knowledge) and when I read a blog suggesting to ditch XSLT and just write your own XML-to-whatever parser in your language of choice, I eagerly jumped onto that and it's worked out brilliantly.</p>
  
  <p>I'm still working on it to this day (<em>I'm actually supposed to be working on it right now, instead of playing on SO</em>), and I am seeing more and more things which make me think that the decision to ditch XSLT was a good one.</p>
  
  <p>I know that XSLT has its place, in that it is an accepted standard, and that if everyone is writing their own interpreters, 90% of them will end up on <a href="http://thedailywtf.com" rel="noreferrer">TheDailyWTF</a>. But given that it is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_programming" rel="noreferrer">functional style language</a> instead of the procedural style which most programmers are familiar with, for someone embarking on a project such as my own, <strong>would you recommend they go down the path that I did, or stick it out with XSLT</strong>?</p>