RE: Why 90 percent of XML standards will fail

[Tim Bray <tbray@textuality.com>]

At 10:02 AM 01/03/01 +1100, James Robertson wrote:
>> >But when the difficult questions arise,
>> >the W3C invariably says "hey don't blame
>> >us, we're not creating standards!".
>>
>>Uh, when?  I haven't observed this. -T
>
>Namespaces.

Expand please.  While I have heard people at W3C avoid
the wrath of ISOphiles by disclaiming the use of the 
word "standard", I have never heard the difference 
(if any) between what Standards and Recommendations are
used as a defense by W3C or its partisans in the face of
a "difficult question".  I'm not saying this couldn't
have happened, I'm just asking for concrete examples of 
what you assert happens "invariably". -Tim