xml-dev - RE: Who will maintain SAX?

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

At 10:00 AM 10/4/00 -0500, Bullard, Claude L (Len) wrote:
>When something is first offered and easy to adopt, they 
>adopt it.  It's cheaper to let this list 
>do that work and it is the right thing to do because 
>it is experimental.  But not when it comes time to 
>extend it. That is when each decision has the most 
>impact on the codebase and responsible vendors 
>protect their customers.  Otherwise, we are back 
>to Sun Owns Java, Adobe Owns PDF and so on.  You 
>get a PAS (publicly accessible specification) instead 
>of an openly developed specification.  

It's not clear to me that handing it over to a vendor consortium is likely
to avoid the PAS issue.  You complain about the benevolent dictatorship
model with regard to individuals, yet appear to have blind faith in
institutions.  I'd argue that it depends on the institution just as much as
it depends on the individual - and I'd far rather have a genuinely
benevolent individual (tough to find) than a committee-ridden pay-to-play
institution.

Maybe I'm just whacked.

>What I said, "At this juncture..." has to do 
>with lifecycle requirements.  What is required 
>now, in my opinion, is a defined process, a credible 
>institution, and the capacity of the institution to 
>engage multiple issues and direct the work.  It is 
>committee work now.  SAX is stable but if opened 
>to political agendas, that future becomes uncertain. 

I have a really hard time seeing what political agendas might derail SAX
this way.  There is a defined extension mechanism already in SAX2, and I
don't think the core is open for widespread debate.

>Let's pass on the SGML bias stuff.  XML is SGML.  
>Trying to make it seem otherwise is populist flame bait.  

Sometimes a little populism is a good thing. As I've noted a few times, XML
ain't _just_ SGML:

http://www.simonstl.com/articles/lettinggo.htm

Hey - your name is even in there, as thanks for comments!

Simon St.Laurent
XML Elements of Style / XML: A Primer, 2nd Ed.
XHTML: Migrating Toward XML
http://www.simonstl.com - XML essays and books