Re: The relentless march of abstraction

[Tim Bray <tbray@textuality.com>]

At 04:38 PM 26/02/01 -0800, Dave Winer wrote:
> I've always felt
>that schema are only needed if you're storing XML content in a relational
>database, but so many applications don't require a relational approach, in
>fact I'd argue that there's nothing about XML that requires a relational db,
>but of course that's what "most people" use, so put the burden on XML, well
>I don't buy it. If it's not needed and it adds complexity let's us an
>approach that doesn't require it.

Well, lots of other people have uses for schemas outside of the
RDBMS arena.  I agree with Megginson that a lot of people expect
more magic & mojo from schemas than they'll deliver in the real
world.  Still, very useful for industrial language designers; and
I think the datatype stuff will actually turn out to be useful
in lots of places.

Having said all that, I agree that the infoset is a tool for
people building the XML family spec infrastructure, not for
ordinary programmers doing real work.  -Tim