[
Lists Home |
Date Index |
Thread Index
]
On Jan 13, 2004, at 6:09 PM, Bullard, Claude L (Len) wrote:
> Pushback or no, Postel doesn't apply to XML by design.
>
I'm not sure I understand. One might accept the principles of "XML by
design" but fall afoul of the details, such as the common mistake of
pasting text with smart quotes or ampersands into an XML document and
having it rejected by a conforming parser. Bill and Betty Blogger
aren't happy about this; ideally they'll use tools that will do the
right thing and escape or translate the character, but Gresham's Law is
more likely to drive them towards non-conformant tools.
That poses a bit of a problem for the XML community -- is the rational
response to "fix" the bits of XML that people stumble over [awaiting
shrieks from the people who shot down XML 1.1], somehow coerce the
myriad tool vendors into doing the Right Thing , or accepting that a
new category of things I call Postel Machines is needed to mediate
between the liberal real world and the conservative world of XML by
Design. I don't have a strong preference, but I'll bet on the Machines
at this point; Gresham's Law will tend to keep the tool vendors
liberal, and we all know what happens when somebody tries to muck with
the XML 1.0 syntax.
|
