xml-dev - Re: Colonialism, SAX, Java, and Namespaces

["Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@simonstl.com>]

At 09:25 AM 2/5/99 -0600, Paul Prescod wrote:
>I'm also someone who recognizes that it is not appropriate to dumb down
>everything so that I *CAN* understand it in its entirety. All I ask is
>that the actual interfaces that I am asked to work with be simplified so
>that I can follow them. The "interface" to namespaces for a developer is
>SAX or RDF engine and eventually DOM. *That's* what should be simple.
>
>Namespaces are an infrastructure technology. You use them THROUGH
>something, like RDF. Without something like RDF they are essentially
>useless. So unless you think that "RDF" is for the "average developer",
>namespaces are not for the average developer. When/if something like RDF
>takes off that situation may change.

Fine, Paul.  Keep using the 'dumb down' vocabulary to show everyone what
you really think of the 'average developer'.  Ignore that fact that (unlike
SQL) there are very few resources that do explain these structures in
readable English (or other languages, to the best of my knowledge.)  Assume
that interfaces - themselves barely explained - can cover all this up
neatly, though the discussion on this list has indicated repeatedly that
those interfaces are not yet up to that task.

Namespaces are all over Internet Explorer.  Millions of people will be
encountering them in some form, and for better or worse, that often leads
to contagion.  Like it or not, these things are going to take off, and we'd
do a lot better to accomodate those millions than keep calling them 'dumb.'

Simon St.Laurent
XML: A Primer / Building XML Applications (March)
Sharing Bandwidth / Cookies
http://www.simonstl.com

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