Re: [xml-dev] Where is XML going

[Dimitre Novatchev <dnovatchev@gmail.com>]

> This flunks the 80/20 rule badly.  20% of use cases are hard enough to
> require transformations.  I'd go so far as to say that only 20% of that 20%
> requires transformation in the browser.
>
> They're totally interesting problems, but unusual enough that the simple
> answer for working with CSS and markup is to create markup you can work with
> in the browser.  There are only about 1.5 million approaches to doing that.
>
> The Web has ignored our glorious creations because it mostly doesn't need
> them.  The one exception I can think of is XLink/XPointer, which I suspect
> failed because it never seemed simple enough to actually use - the simple
> links that hit the 80 mark are already supported more simply elsewhere.

This observation is correct for XML in the browser.

It does not, however, apply to "XML for the Web" -- especially to its
servers side (which may comprise much more than 50%, given that in
order to produce a final xHtml document tens and sometimes even
hundred of transformations (parallel or chained) may take place).


-- 
Cheers,
Dimitre Novatchev
---------------------------------------
Truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence.
---------------------------------------
To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk
-------------------------------------
Never fight an inanimate object
-------------------------------------
You've achieved success in your field when you don't know whether what
you're doing is work or play


On Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 12:23 PM, Simon St.Laurent <simonstl@simonstl.com> wrote:
> On 12/5/10 11:30 AM, Kurt Cagle wrote:
>>
>> David,
>>
>> CSS by itself is insufficient for presentation for all but the most well
>> structured of documents. HTML works well with CSS because HTML has a
>> structural ordering that works well with the CSS model (as to be
>> expected, given that CSS evolved in response to HTML).  Some years ago I
>> wrote a couple of chapters for a book on XML and CSS, showing how you
>> can apply CSS to XML, but as I proved back even then, very, very few XML
>> schemas are in fact even remotely appropriate for direct presentation
>> with CSS.
>
> This flunks the 80/20 rule badly.  20% of use cases are hard enough to
> require transformations.  I'd go so far as to say that only 20% of that 20%
> requires transformation in the browser.
>
> They're totally interesting problems, but unusual enough that the simple
> answer for working with CSS and markup is to create markup you can work with
> in the browser.  There are only about 1.5 million approaches to doing that.
>
> The Web has ignored our glorious creations because it mostly doesn't need
> them.  The one exception I can think of is XLink/XPointer, which I suspect
> failed because it never seemed simple enough to actually use - the simple
> links that hit the 80 mark are already supported more simply elsewhere.
>
> Thanks,
> --
> Simon St.Laurent
> http://simonstl.com/
>
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