CSS versus XSL/XSLT

As shown above, the syntax of CSS is far more compact than XSL (which uses XML syntax). It is therefore easier to write (both faster and without errors) when using standard text-editing tools, and transfers over networks more quickly. CSS is already well supported by popular Web browsers and Web-page authoring tools. It has gained acceptance, and it would certainly be difficult for another, similar stylesheet language to compete with CSS at this stage.

However, CSS was designed to format text blocks that have already been arranged in the correct order within an HTML document. It therefore lacks the transformation capabilities of XSLT. This is its major weakness.

Although it is possible to think of CSS as in direct competition ...

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