xml-dev - Re: Obfuscating XML with namespaces

[Michael Champion <mike.champion@softwareag-usa.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jonathan Robie" <Jonathan.Robie@SoftwareAG-USA.com>
To: <xml-dev@lists.xml.org>
Sent: Monday, October 09, 2000 10:15 AM
Subject: Re: Obfuscating XML with namespaces


> So far, the marketplace seems to be accepting the core standards of XML,
> including XML, XSLT, DOM, and the non-W3C SAX.
<snip>
> Do we want the W3C to
> spend another couple of years rethinking these decisions? Or do we want to
> fragment the market with a set of competing standards? If we want
> simplicity and interoperability, I do not think that either of these
> approaches are helpful.

The Marketplace giveth, and the Marketplace taketh away.  What the W3C/XML
did to ISO/SGML, someone else can do to the W3C, and someone *will* do it if
the W3C standards prove unworkable in practice.  There is a lot of
unhappiness with their complexity and opacity out there  -- see the
"obfuscating XML" post that started this thread, Miroslav Nic's "standards
and their users" post, or the various "stupid XML articles", etc.

All I'm saying is that  *if* there is a widespread feeling that a standards
group has made a mistake, then rethinking, simplifying, and deprecating must
be an option that is considered. As the saying goes, "cannibalize yourself,
or someone else will do it for you."