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----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2001 1:37 PM
Subject: RE: [xml-dev] Has XML run its course?
I apologise if this a slightly over simplistic and naive view.
My knowledge
of the internal workings of the W3C and its
history are minuscule, however,
someone picked up on
accessibility earlier on in the thread.
How many research, standards bodies, commercial and home "users"
were involved
in the creation of the HTML
specifications? How does that number compare to today
and the number of those involved in the creation of XML and XML-"thingy"
specifications
and technologies. I would guess that due
to increased communication on a global scale,
more and
more people (and by that I mean everyone from people at home through to
multi-national organisations) are having their say in
the where these specifications
are going. What also
increases the number of "contributors" is the fact that XML
has such a far reaching appeal (broadly categorised in a early thread
into "data-heads"
and "doc-heads").
I guess what I'm saying here is that too many cooks aren't
necessarily spoiling the broth,
it just tastes a little
funny depending on the inclination of your palette.
We are talking, building, writing faster and faster everyday;
and instead of letting this
give ourselves more time for
reflection and analysis, we're just generating and building
more and more. Its like having a production line for specifications with
less quality
control.
Its looks like this a portion of this thread will be continuing
the discussion of
the effectiveness and future of the
W3C and will be covering some of the ground covered
by
the "tragedy of the commons" thread. Maybe the time is right to take stock of
where we
are. Look at what is created, what is being
used, sort out the really useful from the useful.
Can we
rely on a Darwinian survival of the fittest to take effect here - should we be
performing
that ourselves?
Its all very well saying "pick the technology you need", but its
easier said than done.
You talk to one person they
suggest use technology A, another will suggest specification B and C,
and someone else will suggest something completely
different. In the end you end up debating
how you are
going to implement the solution instead of focusing on what is being
implemented.
The basic XML+DTD tech lets you do this.
Maybe that will be enough. Maybe people will
get so
confused by the large number of complex and seemingly overlapping specifications
that they will just chose the simplest. Maybe a little
guidance is needed.
Just my thoughts.
Tim
|-----Original Message-----
|From:
Murali Mani [mailto:mani@CS.UCLA.EDU]
|Sent: 26 September 2001 20:43
|To: Simon
St.Laurent
|Cc: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
|Subject: Re: [xml-dev] Has XML run its course?
|
|
|
|On Wed, 26 Sep 2001, Simon St.Laurent wrote:
|
|> [No, I'm not suggesting that all of us
working with XML abandon our
|> projects and tools
and retreat to binary formats or some such.]
|>
|> which provide a recipe for
success. Human-readable embedded
|markup
seems
|> to make a lot of people happy, as does the
ability to edit
|such markup in a
|> text editor if necessary. The explicit structures of XML -
|those enforced
|> end-tags -
also seem to strike a chord with a lot of people,
|even
some of
|> those who complained initially.
Flexible hierarchical
|structures seem to
|> make everyone except relational purists happy.
|
|I strongly believe that the
difference in data modeling
|provided by XML --
|will definitely enable XML's existence. This will exist in
research
|circles, at least because of the difference
(no necessity for
|superiority, though I feel it is
superior -- we have to prove to
|relational purists that
it is superior).
|
|I am very
much of a new-comer as compared with Simon, but the
|reason why
|XML standards proliferate is because
of the wide-spread access of
|information to everyone --
it has its plusses, and also disadvantages.
|
|Everyone makes mistakes, i am pretty sure I also would have
|made lots of
|mistakes, what is
required is growing up with our mistakes,
|and
learning
|from them, and admitting what is best for the
field we are working on.
|
|As
far as I am concerned as a researcher, there are several
|frontiers of
|XML research I wish to
explore.
|
|cheers and regards -
murali.
|
|
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