Re: [xml-dev] WXS acronym?

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

> I've been seeing the acronym WXS to describe XML Schema for a long
> time on this mailing list, and I have no idea where it came from.
> It's likely to confuse people since the acronym is never used on the
> W3C site, and it simply isn't the name of a schema language.
> 
> Is there a reason for not calling this language W3C XML Schema or
> XSDL, the official name and acronym for the language respectively?

WXS is an abbreviation for W3C XML Schema that preserves the "W3C" part,
thereby making clear that this "XML Schema" is a project of the W3C, not
something intrinsic to XML itself.  WXS seems to make a lot of sense to
people, especially once they've encountered alternatives to WXS.

I'm starting to apply the same terminology to XQuery - W3C XML Query is
just one option among many.  It's not my problem that the W3C uses a
naming scheme to effectively declare itself as the sole authority on
these subjects.

On XML itself, the terminology's pretty well stuck, but I also tend to
use the more generic "markup" more and more often.

-- 
Simon St.Laurent
Ring around the content, a pocket full of brackets
Errors, errors, all fall down!
http://simonstl.com