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If you are trying to describe the structure of an XML document then you should use W3C XML Schema especially if you will be working primarily in the .NET Framework since there is so much support for it in Microsoft technologies from XML serialization to DataSets to SQLXML. However DTDs are still needed for declaring entities. It is unlikely that W3C XML Schema will have an entity declaration mechanism in future so (then again misfeatures like default element declarations exist for "DTD compatibility" so I may be proved wrong) you should at least learn that aspect of DTDs.
-----Original Message-----
From: Empowering You [mailto:pam@empoweringyou.com]
Sent: Sun 11/10/2002 9:38 AM
To: 'Vijay Polina'; xml-dev@lists.xml.org
Cc:
Subject: RE: [xml-dev] dtds, schemas, xhtml, and multimedia technologies
No, I'm not Microsoft R&D.
I am just someone with a degree in accounting and computers that back in 1985 decided I wanted to do multimedia. I took 5 years to learn photography, graphics, Macromedia Director and Authorware, and video production. Then the web took off and I moved into that.
One of the people I worked for gave me the opportunity to learn Visual Basic so I took it further and ended up being one of the first 100 MSCDs (but never kept up the certification. I am currently certified in Windows 2000, A+, and wrote a book on Windows XP simply because I need to know the OSs and hardware well enough to answer client questions and install Visual Studio.NET beta, which was a nightmare install.) I used Unix, mainframes and minis in college; but no longer use them since my clients don't.
Cold Fusion seemed to be the best web development language back 5 years ago, so I decided to use it for all our clients - it was a lot better than ASP.
I tried working with Java but never thought it was marketed well enough to really take off. And development of the Java language seemed really slow, I kept waiting for it to mature so I could make money with it. If I use HTML then all my clients can always see the result, and what I can't do with HTML I can process on my server using Cold Fusion. So I went that way instead. Less problems.
Then the .NET Framework came out and I loved it. And since Microsoft essentially combined everything they had ever done, plus many of the newer standards, into one huge interactive technology - to me it seems limitless and pretty much came out fully grown (with lots of things that need improvement, but that's to be expected from version 1), unlike Java that seemed to take forever to grow up.
It seems to me that Microsoft finally 'got it', made the paradigm shift to the Internet, and appeared to work with the standards boards to become less proprietary - so I decided to bet my whole business on .NET technologies. Microsoft has their act together and they have enough money for R&D to do things right. I just hope they don't get greedy and decide to go back to proprietary (that's what killed Apple and IBM) or decide to enforce patents which would get every one totally anti-Microsoft again.
So that's pretty much how I got here. Now it seems like it's taking me forever to learn all this new technology. Since I didn't use Microsoft technology before, like ADO or ASP, I have to learn everything from the ground up. Like I said, I'm betting my whole business on .NET. I reduced client work (and therefore income) to the minimum possible and am spending at least 8 hours a day trying to learn everything (mostly late at night so current clients are still serviced) and expect to move all our current clients to .NET and only take on future clients in .NET. We were a Cold Fusion partner last year, but I dropped it.
I'm learning through books, which so far has cost me thousands; but there is no way I could afford to retrain using someone good like DevelopMentor - it would probably cost tens of thousands that way. There is just so much I need to know. And when I'm done learning it, and can guide my employees, then I have to teach them how to understand all of this (they are pretty much procedural oriented, not object oriented, at the moment. Just getting them to make that jump will be a huge battle.). Hopefully by then our income will be back up and they can learn the easy way - through classes and hands on with guidance from me on client projects. I'm trying to make sure I don't just learn the pieces and parts but also learn everything the right way so I don't make mistakes, (like the initial dev-xml discussion on InnerXML and resultant problems).
So here I am, lurking for months in xml-dev, and now finally asking questions, hoping to learn from your experience.
Pam
Pam Ammond
Empowering You!
website: http://www.empoweringyou.com <http://www.empoweringyou.com/>
Please buy the "Wow! Look At Windows XP" book I wrote at http://www.windowsxpbook.com <http://www.windowsxpbook.com/>
-----Original Message-----
From: Vijay Polina [mailto:vpolina@attbi.com]
Sent: Sunday, November 10, 2002 3:00 AM
To: pam@empoweringyou.com; xml-dev@lists.xml.org
Subject: Re: [xml-dev] dtds, schemas, xhtml, and multimedia technologies
Do you work for microsoft R & D?
----- Original Message -----
From: Empowering You <mailto:pam@empoweringyou.com>
To: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
Sent: Saturday, November 09, 2002 10:50 PM
Subject: [xml-dev] dtds, schemas, xhtml, and multimedia technologies
I'm an ex-HTML and ex-Cold Fusion programmer retraining for the future. I started learning XML technologies and .NET in January 2002 and skipped learning anything about DTDs in favor of learning about Schemas. However, in reading the last 3 months of the xml-dev posts I find that you all are referring to DTDs a lot in your posts. Do I need to go back and learn about DTDs? When will I need to use DTDs instead of Schemas?
I intend to ONLY be in the Microsoft .NET environment and only use C#, ASP.NET, XML (XSLT, XPath, XQuery, SQLXML, Schemas), Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and Access, ADO.NET, web services, Javascript/ECMA and Visual Studio.NET. I am not using Java and my clients are only running in the Windows 98 or later operating systems, no Unix. At this point I've got my work cut out just learning the above technologies well, unless you all tell me I need to learn more (what?).
I also intend to use XHTML wherever possible instead of HTML. However, it appears to me that Microsoft isn't fully supporting it. If I remember correctly, one line I wrote in XHTML got "changed" to standard HTML by Visual Studio.NET's editor. Any comments? Is XHTML widely supported or do I have to continue using HTML? I thought standards had moved to favoring XHMTL instead of HTML.
One of my clients asked me to do a multimedia CD project with time lines, audio voice overs, background music, video, and animation. I finally ended up quoting it in Macromedia technologies (mostly Flash) instead of using the above technologies. Anything out there that I missed that I could have used to stay true to the programming technologies I want to use (.NET, XML, and the list of technologies above) and still get the job done as well as I could have in Flash? Please email me in the future if you find something. I am definitely interested, not just for this one project.
I realize this is an XML forum and apologize for getting off of XML in some of my questions. I hope I haven't strayed far enough off to offend you, and intend to stick closer to XML technology questions in the future. Thanks in advance for any answers you choose to provide. Please feel free to email me directly instead of through the forum if your answer is not related to XML technologies.
Pam Ammond
Empowering You!
website: http://www.empoweringyou.com <http://www.empoweringyou.com/>
Please buy the "Wow! Look At Windows XP" book I wrote at http://www.windowsxpbook.com <http://www.windowsxpbook.com/>
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