Re: [xml-dev] NextXML.org - a working space.

[Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@ibiblio.org>]

I suspect that's a little premature. It's not enough to agree that
there should be a next XML, if we don't have some plausible idea of
what that means. So far what I'm gathering is that there's not
anything approaching consensus on what the next XML should be, if
anything. If what we have is 20 different folks pulling in 20
different directions, then this is pointless (though it's interesting
to find that out). So far, we have fundamental disagreements on:

1. Remove some syntax or support all existing syntax
2. Add new syntax or don't add new syntax.
3. Add new semantics or don't add new semantics.
4. Schema based or schema agnostic.
5. Graph based or tree based

That's 2^5 possible combinations, or 32 separate positions. More may
be forthcoming, and I may have missed one or two. If there's just 0-2
folks falling in each camp, then I doubt we can do much. Personally I
was aiming for yes on 1 and 3, and no on 2, 4, and 5 (though some of
the discussion here is suggesting that 3 alone might be preferable) .
I was hoping a core group might coalesce that agreed on the
fundamentals. Or perhaps a couple of core groups that would do
different things and let the market decide. I'd love to see what a
graph-based markup language looked like, for example, though I suspect
that's really something de novo and not a new version of XML.

However I do not wish to repeat the W3C schema or WS-FOO experiences
where every party throws every personal feature into the hat and
produces an incoherent mess. Instead I'd like to repeat the XML 1.0
and XSLT 1.0 experiences where  a small group of interested folks with
a shared vision produces something clear that they can present to the
world. This will not be presented as a de jure standard that must be
adopted, but rather as, "Here's something cool that we worked on. Let
us know if you like it. Use it if it seems helpful."

Anyway, it's early yet. Not even the work week for most of us. Let's
see what Monday brings.

-- 
Elliotte Rusty Harold
elharo@ibiblio.org