RE:different communities III

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

At 12:20 PM 2/8/01 +0100, Vegt, Jan wrote:
>The point is (finally): if we can solve the hard problem in neuro-logical
>space there is no reason why we cannot solve it in easy, binary logic space.
>There will be better ways eventually, there always are.

Sorry, but I think you've grandly and perhaps deliberately missed my point.
 I'm suggesting that the 'hard problems' have genuinely different solutions
in 'neuro-logical' space, and that the 'easy, binary logic space' needs to
reflect this. That reflection isn't necessarily easy or uniform.

This isn't a matter of excising "economic dimensions (value exchanges like
culture and politics)" - it's a matter of solving different problems with
different practices.  Finish carpenters and framing carpenters both build
things using wood, and use a large number of the same tools, but their
practices, values, billing, and substantial parts of their toolkits are
extremely different, and should be.  

>I believe the general idea of a general markup language to be
>important and valid. Too much prior art not to be sensible. (Humans are not
>that original in thought). 

'A general markup language'?  Or do you mean 'a general markup syntax'?

I think we can have the general syntax, but a general markup language
requires humans to be far less original than they appear to be in practice.
 The prior art hasn't exactly covered every field of human endeavor.

>>I'm not convinced that we can find nearly as much uniformity of purpose at
>>any level beyond the foundation.
>
>We'll see, if it breaks, we'll fix it. 

And I'm suggesting we take a look at the cracks in the wall now, before we
have a major break.  Failures can be sudden, severe, and difficult to fix.
I'd rather not see markup itself blamed for problems brought on by best
practices which aren't appropriate to the fields where they are applied.

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