Re: [xml-dev] Test import markup

[John Cowan <cowan@mercury.ccil.org>]

Rand McRanderson scripsit:

> I realize in a way standardization undermines my company (if customers
> can interchange, they can interchange out of our format), but I think
> it makes sense in terms of making life easier for doing better tests
> faster and creating safer code (my company works with safety-critical
> software, so safe code in our cases is often literally a matter of
> life or death).

Absolutely sound reasoning.  Competition by lock-in is a short-term
strategy only.

> While I speak only as an individual, I can say that if people can
> point me to a good standard or a vendor-neutral standards body for
> this sort of thing, I would push for my company to offer some degree
> of compliance with that.

I can't speak to any pre-existing standards in this field, but OASIS
<http://oasis-open.org> makes it very easy to create IT standards and
has done a lot of markup standards in the past.  It only takes three
OASIS members to start a working group.  It is also very cheap for a
corporate membership: $8000 (less if you have less than 500 employees).

-- 
A witness cannot give evidence of his           John Cowan
age unless he can remember being born.          cowan@ccil.org
  --Judge Blagden                               http://www.ccil.org/~cowan