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- From: Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@metalab.unc.edu>
- To: xml-dev@xml.org
- Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 09:21:20 -0400
I'd like to raise a concern about XML Schemas I haven't yet seen
elsewhere. I think "XML Schema" is the wrong name for this
technology. Here's why:
"Schema" is a generic word used in computer science. "XML" refers to
a specific technology. There are many XML schema languages of which
the W3C's "XML Schema" is but one. To identify the W3C's proposed
schema language only as "XML Schema" is to strongly imply that there
is only one schema language for XML; and that is simply not true.
I would prefer to see RELAX, Schematron, DTDs, and the various other
proposals slug it out in the marketplace. I do not see a need for or
want only one XML schema language, any more than I want only one
programming language. Different languages are appropriate for
different uses.
I do not know what the W3C's XML schema language should be called.
XSchema is one name I've seen bantered around, and that seems OK as
long as it expands to "AN XML Schema Language" rather than "THE XML
Schema Language". But it should not be called simply "XML Schema".
That's like calling Java "VM Programming Language" even though there
are many other languages that can be used to program the Java virtual
machine. There are other programming languages and there are other
schema languages. No one language should have the right to identify
itself solely by the generic name for a technology
--
+-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
| Elliotte Rusty Harold | elharo@metalab.unc.edu | Writer/Programmer |
+-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
| The XML Bible (IDG Books, 1999) |
| http://metalab.unc.edu/xml/books/bible/ |
| http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0764532367/cafeaulaitA/ |
+----------------------------------+---------------------------------+
| Read Cafe au Lait for Java News: http://metalab.unc.edu/javafaq/ |
| Read Cafe con Leche for XML News: http://metalab.unc.edu/xml/ |
+----------------------------------+---------------------------------+
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