RE: experts

["Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@ingr.com>]

The first HTML was pretty bad.  It was end-tagged 
a la RTF.  Rubinsky told us that it got better as 
some experienced SGMLers became involved.  He cited 
Connolly, Anders, etc.  One might say that it did 
the job it was intended to so but as more people 
wanted to so more with it, it didn't stay simple.

Simple is good, but nothing with multiple interests  
stays simple.   It isn't the original simple idea one 
contends with; it is the results of more requirements 
bearing more features.  Think of it as Heisenberg 
Unleashed:  we can't know the position because it 
moves if we look at it and if we keep looking at 
it, it keeps moving.  ISO says, issue only every five 
years and that controls the rate of change.  I think 
that is the best one can do.

As to openness, it comes down to the people.  Expertise 
is one factor in any given person.  Leadership skill 
is not necessarily technical.  I laugh every time 
I see the phrase "all we need are programers". 
Leadership is very individual.   Lauren Wood 
is a good example to follow.  Anyone ever figure 
out exactly how she does it?  The one time I 
met her, I was struck by her enormous capacity 
to make one feel appreciated. 

(Ok, Lauren; the cult of personality will now begin
to bronze your shoes....)

Len 
http://www.mp3.com/LenBullard

Ekam sat.h, Vipraah bahudhaa vadanti.
Daamyata. Datta. Dayadhvam.h


-----Original Message-----
From: Gavin Thomas Nicol [mailto:gtn@ebt.com]

> HTML, of course, was designed by an amateur.

Again, I think Tim had a pretty good knowledge of markup and hypermedia
when he first designed HTML... probably more than people give him
credit for. He probably did have gaps though... hence some of
limitations/problems we saw.



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