Re: [xml-dev] costs of bureaucracy (was Re: [xml-dev] Not using mixed co

[Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com>]

On 8 Apr 2013, at 06:59, Simon St.Laurent wrote:

> You certainly can lie on tax forms, and people do.  The validation of that data is less about the form and more about redundant collection of data from an ever-growing number of perhaps independent sources. 

Validation that tries to prevent people lying is certainly a waste of time (and sometimes it achieves the opposite effect, it can force people to lie, for example I've had to invent a US phone number on occasions).

But that's not what validation is for. Validation is to ensure that the message is readable by the recipient.

Over-zealous validation can certainly have the effect of requiring more data to be supplied than is actually needed. But that's not a fault of validation, it's a fault of over-zealousness.


Michael Kay
Saxonica