xml-dev - Re: XML is boring

[Daniel Veillard <Daniel.Veillard@w3.org>]

Quoting Tim Bray (tbray@textuality.com):
> At 08:23 AM 9/13/98 -0700, Dave Winer wrote:
> >I also wonder if the W3C is up to handling issues of file formats for
> >productivity apps,  graphics tools and groupware, or if some other forum
> >for discussing file format standards is necessary.
> 
> Tough call.  I think that W3C's choices so far have been consistent
> (HTML, XML, CSS, MathML, SMIL, etc) but I'm not sure anyone has written
> down the underlying principle.  For example, I can't see W3C being
> an appropriate venue to discuss spreadsheet formats, but I can't really
> crystallize why that's the case. -Tim

  I guess that a simple answer to that it is somewhat out of the scope
of our main goal:

--------- http://www.w3.org/Consortium/ ----------
The W3C was founded in October 1994 to lead the World Wide Web to its
full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution
and ensure its interoperability. 
--------------------------------------------------

  I guess also that trying to cover all the possible application of XML
would completely dilute our efforts. How far can W3C go in the standardization
of XML applications is a difficult problem, there is resources consideration
and also technical challenges. For example it seems that a standard type
system for XML encodings would be a good things since it would enhance
interoperability and avoid duplicating efforts. But I don't think we should
be involved in a normalization of the screw and bolts references XML
encoding, not that it's not important (I may even have more impact than
productivity apps format standardization), but rather because we don't have
good knowldge of this field and this will definitely better done by people
involved in that field.
  As always in real life the border between white and black is never a
line but shades of grey, this mean that W3C may give some feedback on 
other normalization process, and we will accept submission from members.

  Back to desktop applications, I for sure would be extremely happy to
have a standard XML encoding for them supported by the major application
vendors, I'm just not sure it would be a good idea to try to get this
done within W3C. 

  Daniel

-- 
Daniel.Veillard@w3.org | W3C  MIT/LCS  NE43-344  | Today's Bookmarks :
Tel : +1 617 253 5884  | 545 Technology Square   | Linux, WWW, rpm2html,
Fax : +1 617 258 5999  | Cambridge, MA 02139 USA | badminton, Kaffe,
http://www.w3.org/People/W3Cpeople.html#Veillard | HTTP-NG and Amaya.

xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev@ic.ac.uk
Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/
To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message;
(un)subscribe xml-dev
To subscribe to the digests, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message;
subscribe xml-dev-digest
List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)