Re: [xml-dev] Why Use anyURI

[David <dlee@calldei.com>]

> Is Michael saying that the XML Schema spec is so large and has so many
> problems it has actually been effectively unmaintainable for the last five
> years?
>
I read this as :  "any project as complex as XML Schema can never fully 
satisfy everyone, no matter how much work you put into it".


>> When I saw that this was the situation, I decided to stop moaning from
>> the sidelines and join the WG. The situation might be different if more
>> people had done the same.
> ?? Sending in serious comments is "moaning"? I must be misreading, it is
> late here.
>
> Cheers
> Rick Jelliffe

I don't think there is a conflict of terms between "sending in serious 
comments" and "moaning".
It depends on which end of the comments your on, and what your mood is :)
Although there appears to be paid members of the W3C 
(http://rebuildingtheweb.com/en/new-mission-of-w3c/ ... I cant say for 
sure ...)
I consider it more like a large popular open source project.   And in 
that aspect, "comments" == "moaning" ... that is people are asking for 
the work of others to be done for free (presumably for the benefit of 
all, but it still takes work).

But contrary to the analogy to a OS project, I somewhat disagree with 
the  implication that its easy to simply join the W3C and "start helping 
out".   Not only do you have to *pay* to become a member , or become an 
'Invited Expert'.   But even if the W3C honored every request for a free 
invited expert to "help out", It looks like a lot of *work*.   You have 
to be involved in all the meetings, become an expert in the entire 
standard, and put up with what appears from the outside to be a lot of 
difficult politics.   AND actually produce results that please enough 
people to not be scoffed at and ridiculed in public.   After doing all 
that, I suspect I'd view most late-coming 'serious comments' as 
'moaning' even if they are well founded and justified.   I don't see it 
as a contradiction.

The other day I was listening to a Dr. (the medical kind) give an 
interesting statement.   He said if every Dr read one medical journal 
article a day in order to try to keep informed (and most doctors don't 
do nearly that much).   After 1 week they'd be 300 years behind.
I can imagine a WG of the W3C being sorta like that.    If comments come 
in faster then work can progress (which appears to be the case), what 
can you do ?  There's only a few things you can do that result in a 
completed spec in finite time.   At some point you need to ship something.
Or give up.



-David Lee
dlee@calldei.com
www.xmlsh.org