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- From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@simonstl.com>
- To: Paul Prescod <paul@prescod.net>, ",XML-DEV (E-mail)" <xml-dev@xml.org>
- Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2000 08:16:48 -0400
At 01:47 AM 4/25/00 -0500, Paul Prescod wrote:
>I care first about consistency. I hate the fact that the W3C specs are
>totally inconsistent between them. I'll admit, however, that I am more
>pissed off about the problems that the data model inconsistency gives me
>at the programming level than I am about terminological inconsistency.
>Solve the first problem and the second will follow. Solve the second
>first and things get MORE confusing, not less. (you say element, I say
>element but we mean different things)
Without that kind of consistency, I think all we're left with is the
syntax, taught by example or by EBNF. There is no 'data model' and we just
have to deal with the consequences.
The rest of the projects can go on, but every time they change either the
terminology or the supposed data model, both of which are already seen
differently by everyone, the costs of learning and using the new projects
rise. The terminology and data model problems are interrelated, but I'm
not convinced that 'solving' the data model would fix the terminology - or
vice versa.
It might be interesting to set up a public forum somehow that addresses
these issues specifically, quarantining them to some extent while keeping
the discussion available to anyone who wants to join in.
>These problems are not going to bring XML to its knees. We will just
>work around them as we have been. It's just annoying.
It may not be so bad overall, but it might be smarter not to celebrate
'Pedantry, Punditry, and Purple Prose' either. Highlighting the 'annoying'
stuff doesn't do anything to reduce XML's reputation as 'simple stuff made
unnecessarily complex'. It's a PR problem and a real problem, all rolled up
in one.
Simon St.Laurent
XML Elements of Style / XML: A Primer, 2nd Ed.
Building XML Applications
Inside XML DTDs: Scientific and Technical
Cookies / Sharing Bandwidth
http://www.simonstl.com
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