Re: [xml-dev] Should XML ever be presented to 'users' (Was: Re: [xml-dev

["Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@simonstl.com>]

On 4/9/11 2:10 PM, Pete Cordell wrote:
> By analogy to a cruise liner, I see XML as being part of the engine room
> of a ship, deep down in its bowels. The regular (non-expert) users are
> in the extravagantly furnished ballrooms, completely oblivious to the
> XML shovelling that goes on below to keep the ship moving forward. They
> don't know, or care, that XML is being used.
>
> As such it should be only in exceptional circumstances that a non-expert
> user sees raw XML. Consequently, anybody that does see the XML can be
> expected to have some degree of specialist, domain-specific knowledge.
> Therefore, expecting a person that interacts directly with the XML to be
> able to convert between different measurement systems (assuming that's
> the nature of their application domain) is quite reasonable.

Why bury the good stuff in the engine room?  Or at least, why lock 
tourists out of the engine room?

I work with raw markup on a daily basis.  Lots of my authors prefer that 
it be hidden, but really, it's not that difficult.  None of the markup I 
use really demands specialist knowledge, though the supporting toolsets 
certainly can.

Pretty much any time someone claims that the underlying markup doesn't 
matter because no one but the programmers will (or should) ever see it, 
I pray that God will have mercy on their soul.

-- 
Simon St.Laurent
http://simonstl.com/