optics/lenses solve this problem in a framework that is jargon-heavy and difficult to understand, and most implementations I've seen use languages with very str

optics/lenses solve this problem in a framework that is jargon-heavy and difficult to understand, and most implementations I've seen use languages with very strict type system. The XSLT+XPath approach is more dynamic, easier to grasp (imho) and can probably be learned in an afternoon. Tradeoffs, tradeoffs... I wouldn't want to write most programs in Haskell but you could write pretty much any program in, say, JavaScript ... :-)