RE: designers as users etc.

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

I'm probably more concerned with just how good the 
schema designs from committees are going to be.  Even 
with the relative simple-mindedness of DTDs, it can 
be difficult to get agreement given the n-dimensional 
competence problems (tools, technologies, subject domain, 
mammalStuff).  Now we have a very powerful but still 
largely unpracticed schema language that borders on 
but is not quite an object-oriented design tool (vs 
DTDs which were pretty much just documents and 
structured lists), emerging competing schema languages, 
and a certain lack of methodology-centric design 
tools to hide the rules for all of these.  Toss in 
the semantic web hype and this is a witches brew 
guaranteed to produce "toil and trouble".  Put 
all that in the hands of people who have yet 
to understand what well-formed means and you 
see quickly that XML is really in much worse 
shape than SGML for the end-user.

Somewhere near the top of the list of every 
XML project will be the topic:

Limiting the Options:  Understanding the End Game

followed by

Don't Publish Just Because It Parses

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

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


-----Original Message-----
From: Simon St.Laurent [mailto:simonstl@simonstl.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2001 9:36 AM
To: Bullard, Claude L (Len)
Cc: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
Subject: RE: designers as users etc.


On 12 Jun 2001 09:24:21 -0500, Bullard, Claude L (Len) wrote:
> I'm not sure what the conclusion here is:
> 
> o Only programmers should use systems
> o Only users should program systems
> 
> and then how that translates to XML where
> 
> o Any one can write an instance
> o Only some programs can process some instances
> 
> What is the point exactly?

The point is that bringing users closer to the design process can
improve the design on multiple levels.  Also, the value of iterative
development and maximum flexbility in the course of such design.

The claim that "only some programs can process some instances" is true
because we've let it be true.  On some levels - XML parsing - it's
largely false.  XML seems to me to be an opportunity to get beyond that
painfully narrow (but supposedly easy) vision of information processing.



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