RE: [xml-dev] W3C Schema: Resistance is Futile, says Don Box

["bryan" <bry@itnisk.com>]

On Tue, Jun 11, 2002 at 04:22:55PM +0200, bryan wrote:
> 
> Data entry is a user interface issue. There are plenty of applications
> out there that allow you to type in "June 11, 2002", then store it as,
> e.g., 2002-06-11. I don't think anyone is saying end users should be
> subject to such rigid constraints, or if they are they should be
slapped
> silly.
> 
> And if the user interface is an xml editor for writing up your
E-Catalog
> or what have you? The person entering the info for the catalog is
still,
> to my mind, a user.
Matt wrote:
[Well, that's a valid concern. But to me it still seems like more of an
application issue than an XML issue. I think it's important to define
what kind of user we are talking about (which I suspect many vendors of 
XML editors haven't done). If it's someone like me, well, I'm a
developer (as well as a writer), and I don't even use an XML editor most
of the time: I do most of my work in vi, and am accustomed to rigid
language requirements. So for people like me it is no burden to look up
and consistently use the correct date format.]

That's true but there are intermediate users as well, and even so if
your natural inclincation is to write 01-23-1977...ah well, but here I'm
getting off track since there is another concern that if XSDL validation
is so patchy that one has to write all sorts of other code to validate
and transform dates into a dateformat that XSDL understands I think
again the utility of XSDL comes into serious question. 

[If on the other hand, you're talking about clerks, professors, or
physicians, it seems to me that having those people (with the possible
exception of professors) work with raw XML is asking for all kinds of
trouble in any case. I don't see a good reason why people who can't
think in code and have no particular interest in it should have to see
it. They should have friendly GUIs to work with. If those aren't
provided, well, to my mind the problem lies with their management or
with the software vendor.]


I think people can be taught to think in Xml rather easier than they can
be taught to think in "code", code being a far wider field of discipline
than xml is. Lots of people were taught to think in html, and look how
well that turned out. :)
 

[By the way, did you mean for this to be off-list?]
no I just posted in two separate posts