xml-dev - Re: Big Day for Namespaces, Styles

[Tyler Baker <tyler@infinet.com>]

"Simon St.Laurent" wrote:

> 'Namespaces in XML' is now a W3C recommendation:
>
> http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names/

This is a very, very, very sad day for the XML Community which will be remembered
for eons as the day XML complicated itself to the point where it is virtually
unusable by the masses, at least as far as namespaces is concerned.  Right now
for a number of XML related projects I am working on, I am pondering whether or
not to:

(1) Ignore namespaces altogether and never mention the phrase "Namespaces in XML"
in the words I speak.
(2) Roll my own proprietary namespaces implementation (I really don't like this
option but just about anything can be better than what we currently have).
(3) Look into something like David Megginson's XAF to do what I need for now and
the future.
(4) Get by without any namespaces mechanism as I have so far to date.

For technologies like XSL where you will have web-site designers who don't have
CS degrees from fancy-shmancy institutions, "Namespaces in XML" will be a bigger
travesty as transformation of XSL is complicated enough already.

The W3C Namespaces WG could of done a much better job if they tried harder and
did not fall into the groupthink model that appears to have driven this draft
from the beginning.

These are my own personal opinions.  I don't mean to be rude or disrespectful to
the WG and editors of this draft, but I really don't know of any other forum
where I can publicly display my deep frustration and disappointment with this WG
recommendation that us developers are expected to use and implement in our
software products as some sort of "standard".

Namespaces plain and simple are inefficient to process, sloppy (making namespace
declarations through the use of attributes), and most importantly too complicated
for the end-user IMVVVVVVVHO.

In the future, the W3C will need to get more non-programmers like web-site
developers developing these specs cause they will in the end be the ones who will
be using XSL, XML, and all of the related technologies the most.  When us
programmers write specs that are too complicated for mere mortals to understand
at first glance, then we are only spewing out useless text to glorify ourselves
and each other.

When will the W3C get the point that end-users matter.

Sincerely,

Tyler


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