RE: [xml-dev] The Legend of 'View Source'

["Dare Obasanjo" <dareo@microsoft.com>]

I've always seen the "View Source" argument as stating that it is necessary that markup languages or data formats that it are expected to be widely adopted on a global network such as the WWW to be easily understandable and implemented by the average technical or semi-technical person by directly viewing example documents as opposed to reading specs. 
 
When I first decided to generate an RSS feed for my personal online journal, I looked at Sam and Don's feeds as examples of what my feed should look like and for the most part it worked. 

________________________________

From: Danny Ayers [mailto:danny666@virgilio.it]
Sent: Tue 7/8/2003 5:17 PM
To: Dare Obasanjo; Xml-Dev
Subject: RE: [xml-dev] The Legend of 'View Source'


(sorry, I've forgotten how to fix HTML posts)
 
[Dare] 
 I believe you start from a faulty premise. I've never heard anyone claim that "view source" is needed for any markup language or general technology to become popular. However I have heard the claim that it is important that the "view source" principle be maintained for documents on the Web.  
 
[Danny]
I wasn't trying to suggest that e.g. automobile engineers insisted on making the source code of their products human-readable. And if my observation is way out, that's good news .  But the claim to which refer was certainly in my sights. 
 

	[Dare]
	This is something that from practical experience I agree with a 100%. My first personal homepage was created primarily via doing "view source" on a fellow student's webpage and then editting it until it looked OK in IE. My first RSS feed was obtained by doing "view source" on the Sam Ruby and Don Box's RSS feeds.  
	 
	[Danny]
	When? Post-XHTML (as found in their feeds)? 
	 
	[Dare]
	Reading your rant, I am confused.  
	 
	[Danny]
	Thank you for calling it a rant - I thought I might have been too pliant. Maybe  I was  a bit, if you are confused.
	 
	[Dare]
	 I'm not sure what "view source" has to do with XSLT or RDBMSs though.  
	 
	[Danny]
	My point is that "View Source" may be overrated.  XSLT is viewable, but not comprehensible based on that alone; many documents on the web are stored in RDBMS, yet the "view source " principle isn't maintained.
	 
	Cheers,
	Danny.