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I agree, but some of what passed for design is
is churning without progress.
URLs are what pathbased directory systems have
been for a long time. The HTTP protocol reduces
operations to a bare minimum (that is progress).
The URI is a weird but workable
idea, and only weird because it is given primacy
when it is actually a secondary emergent property.
Relax NG is progress. XML Schema is progress.
XSLT is definitely a boon but we've had transformation
tools for years. These aren't fundamentals. They
simply moved validation data into a different syntax
then added more validation methods as any application
language does.
The Web did not alter the fundamentals of markup. It
almost drove it into the sea by a reversion to its
most primitive forms of application language. It
brought a lot of money and talent and some focus to the
game. 404s recognize the fact of link maintenance.
The previous designers chased a phantom of link
completeness, but HTTP is not markup.
But if we claim that well-formedness as the basis
is an innovation, one missed some progressive SGML software.
Getting WFness into the spec as the bottom line
was progress but also a pallative for standards guilt.
We knew howand why; we got to quit apologizing for it
and enduring the SGML Way tirades that wasted
time and altered procurements.
Fighting over well-formedness vs validity
is like fighting over co-habitation vs marriage.
Do as you will, but remember the children.
len
-----Original Message-----
From: John Cowan [mailto:jcowan@reutershealth.com]
"Bullard, Claude L (Len)" scripsit:
> The claims that the web have altered the fundamentals
> of markup are without basis, hubristic, and somewhat
> at the root of the restless innovation that seems to
> churn applications but make no real progress.
There has been real progress. URLs are real progress, even if theoretically
messy: they provide an actual, functioning, de facto document identifier
infrastructure. RELAX NG is progress by any measure. W3C XML Schema
includes progressive features. By separation of concerns, XSLT and XSL:FO
represent progress over DS+L. Unicode is real progress.
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