Re: [xml-dev] SGML->XML->? (was Re: [xml-dev] SML: Second Try)

[Joe English <jenglish@flightlab.com>]

Dave Pawson wrote:
>
> The design goals for XML are
>     * XML shall be straightforwardly usable over the Internet.
>     * XML shall support a wide variety of applications.
>     * XML shall be compatible with SGML.
>     * It shall be easy to write programs which process XML documents.
>     * The number of optional features in XML is to be kept to the absolute
> minimum, ideally zero.
>     * XML documents should be human-legible and reasonably clear.
>     * The XML design should be prepared quickly.
>     * The design of XML shall be formal and concise.
>     * XML documents shall be easy to create.
>     * Terseness in XML markup is of minimal importance.
>
> Which ones are wrong today?


The number of optional features was not kept to
the absolute minimum.

This has been the main source of interoperability
problems amongst different XML processors, in my
experience.


--Joe English

  jenglish@flightlab.com