xml-dev - RE: why distinctions within XHTML?

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

At 01:40 PM 8/30/99 -0400, Ann Navarro wrote:
>At 01:31 PM 8/30/99 -0400, Simon St.Laurent wrote:
>It states we're working on it, and indeed we are. Watch the drafts, they
>will answer many questions. 
>
>It's important that people do read these with sufficent attention to detail
>to understand that this is NOT the end of development of XHTML, and that it
>won't solve all HTML to XML issues. It is what it says it is, bringing one
>into the other. Next we expand and improve. 

It's also important that people read these drafts critically, as mistakes
made at this point in the development of XHTML may well linger into later
projects based on this foundation, potentially snarling the many good
things XHTML promises. I would argue that the three varieties of HTML
introduced in earlier versions of HTML are exactly such a snarl, and
demonstrate how hard it is to get rid of such things once we've grown
comfortable with them.

Assuming that the WG has a clear, though unstated, roadmap for integrating
its usage of namespaces with future XML schema developments seems like a
very bad idea indeed.

It doesn't seem reasonable to build a foundation riddled with gaps like
these and then assume that future development will clean them up.  It seems
like it might be smarter to ask what the foundation itself must provide, so
that we can build on it safely.

Unfortunately, that doesn't appear to be what the project is doing, though
in many ways that is how it has been billed to the public.

Simon St.Laurent
XML: A Primer (2nd Ed - September)
Building XML Applications
Inside XML DTDs: Scientific and Technical
Sharing Bandwidth / Cookies
http://www.simonstl.com

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