XSD (was Re: The lists I monitor)

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

At 05:42 PM 5/7/01 -0700, Paul Cody Johnston wrote:
>Like it or not, the name "XSD" is associated with the W3C.  Perhaps if
>the yahoo list creator would not encroach on the namespace so closely:
>perhaps "XSD-users" or "alt-XSD" or "XSD-open" would be better (and
>not a bad marketing move either).  Am I wrong in that
><quote>XSD</quote> *is* W3c territory?

I think XSD/XSDL are considered non-acronyms by some, actually.  xsd is the 
namespace prefix, but I don't see the W3C referring to XSD.

It would be handy to have a means of distinguishing XML Schema from XML 
schema languages in general.

Writing W3C XML Schema every time is kind of exasperating, and the simple 
caps on "S" distinction doesn't register with a lot of readers.

We changed XSchema's name to DDML at submission (01/99) to assauge concerns 
over confusion, but the current "XML Schema" title seems to hold more 
potential for confusion to me with other schema approaches than did the XML 
Schema/XSchema naming conflict.

The name "XML Schema" could be read as a holdover from the time when it 
seemed like the Schema WG process might result in the one true schema 
language, I guess.


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