While working on some XML and XSLT stuff, I ran into some strange problems where transformed XML content was making Firefox spin its wheels forever and Safari was having problems rendering XSL variables.
I wasn’t engaged in a browser war shoot out, I just wanted to know that the XSLT was correctly transforming the XML into the desired output. As various tools were slowly slipping from my fingertips, I figured I might just have to go back to the command line.
But then I discovered XSLPalette. It’s a “free, native, XSLT 2.0, XPath 2.0, and XQuery 1.0 debugging palette” for OS X (and it’s a Universal Binary).
All I have to say is that, as a developer, I’m impressed with the ease this tool provides for trying different XSLT engines. I does basically one thing, and that one thing very, very well. I like that in developer tools.
You give the palette an XML file, and XSLT file, select the engine, and it does the transformation, showing you messages along the way, in addition to the transformed output, a collapsible view, and a browser-like rendered view.
Walt gives XSLPalette a thumbs up!