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Mike Champion:
> Again, the issue isn't datatypes per se, but getting so wrapped up in
> the world of proprietary wizards and GUIs that you lose sight and control
> of the XML itself. My concern is that XQuery, by starting from
> the premise that it is a "strongly typed language" (not to mention one
> that is too complex for ordinary mortals to fully comprehend), will encourage
> reliance on the Wizard behind the curtain rather than
> honest proletarian labor :-)
Yes. Just so. And wizards get the project out the door a shade earlier, at
the price of adding ghastly multiples to maintenance costs down the road.
> To switch back to Uche's metaphor, the concern is that XQuery declares
> itself part of the Aristrocracy, and says of the Bohemians "let them
> eat cake" [I've been trying to work in that line all afternoon, sorry!]
> Uche is saying that if you want real interoperability across platforms
> and across tools and across time, you are better off sticking with the
> Bohemian diet of bread and avoiding the cake -- plain old text and
> markup that anyone can understand. But this discussion is basically
> pointless in the sense that there's no necessity determined by the
> technology, it's all in the mindset that the technology facilitates ...
> which can be resisted if you're careful enough.
I don't deny that the WXSDT round of W3C specs can be navigated by a skillful
hand in order to avoid the bit rot threatened by strong typing. However, I'd
say that such a skillful hand wouldn't need all these specious wizards,
anyway. So the audience that the W3C seems most to be trying to help (i.e.
the average developer) is the audience most likely to come to grief as a
result of of the W3C's ministrations.
--
Uche Ogbuji Fourthought, Inc.
http://uche.ogbuji.net http://4Suite.org http://fourthought.com
Tour of 4Suite - http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/10/16/py-xml.html
Proper XML Output in Python - http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/11/13/py-xml.html
RSS for Python - http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-pyth11.html
Debug XSLT on the fly - http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-debugxs.html
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