xml-dev - Re: coming clean with the SGML crowd (was re: namespaces)

[Paul Prescod <papresco@technologist.com>]

Richard L. Goerwitz III wrote:
> 
> Note that in this scheme, the SGML compatibility crowd pays more than the
> rest of us.  The more namespaces are actually used (and the more they make
> the process of writing DTDs that much less direct and useful), the more
> these silly kludges become necessary, and the more XML loses its connec-
> tion with SGML.

That is not true. SGML is not a static thing. It can change. The XML
community has "volunteered" to test out namespaces. If they prove to be
useful, I expect SGML would adopt them. If they are just useless syntactic
sugar (as opposed to useful syntactic sugar), that will become evident in
the next few months or years and they will fall into disuse.

The same goes for schemas: if the XML world comes up with a truly better
way to do DTDs, then SGML can incorporate it.
 
 Paul Prescod  - http://itrc.uwaterloo.ca/~papresco

The past is inaccurate. Whoever lives long enough knows how much what he
had seen with his own eyes becomes overgrown with rumor, legend a
magnifying or belittling hearsay. "It was not like that at all!" -- 
he would like to exclaim, but will not, for they would have seen only 
his moving lips without hearing his voice. - Czeslaw Milosz (translated)


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