Re: [xml-dev] RE: James Clark: XML versus the Web

[Liam R E Quin <liam@w3.org>]

On Wed, 2010-12-01 at 12:58 -0500, Richard Salz wrote:
> > It's only when I have to 
> > explain them to a developer who just doesn't care, and just wants to 
> > get the job done, that I become aware of how bizarre the rules are.
> 
> It's interesting: the rules of any flexible language have parts that are 
> obscure or difficult to fully master -- Perl, irregular verbs, the 
> preterite tense, the vastness of PL/I, and so on -- yet XMLNS gets more 
> than it's share of complaints and vehemence.

I think developers are often startled and disappointed to fin that
namespaces in XML are so much less than namespaces in most programming
languages.

On the other end, people using namespaces to identify authorities find
the interactions between the syntax and the intended semantics, between
the envelope and the payload, if you will have it so, frustrating.

There's no easy fix, however, to difficult problems.

Liam


-- 
Liam Quin - XML Activity Lead, W3C, http://www.w3.org/People/Quin/
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