RE: XML Schema becomes a W3C Recommendation

[Danny Ayers <danny@panlanka.net>]

Your mention of never using DTDs says a lot, I get the picture that you are
using XML primarily for representation rather than for data. Ok, so you
don't really need DTDs/Schema if you're just wanting to show something in a
browser, you can afford to be loose - like in HTML it doesn't really matter
if the font isn't exactly the one you intended. If you're trying to
accurately communicate data then DTDs become useful, and even more so XML
Schemas. I doubt whether you would drop all constraints on your RDBMS data,
similarly it would be foolhardy with serialized XML.

Wouldn't it be better for it to be possible to use RSS with DTDs/Schema? I'm
not familiar with RSS, but it does sound rather renegade if it won't even
work with DTDs. Is there absolutely no need for validation? Nothing needs
checking? Does it need to be well-formed? Is it XML? If the reasons for lack
of interoperability lie with XML Schema not being versatile enough, then
fair enough, the XML Schema spec needs revising. I agree that the use of XML
Schemas should be optional, but I don't see them as some kind of ogre,
rather a way of being able to better guarantee quality of information
delivery - a desirable thing, surely?