Re: [xml-dev] Gothic definitions (was Re: [xml-dev] Re: Markup, anabstra

[Liam R E Quin <liam@w3.org>]

On Thu, 2013-08-29 at 17:26 +0100, Norman Gray wrote:

> Hmm: what would goth markup look like, I wonder?
> 
> <!ELEMENT gothicperson (tribe?, parentsname2, sackings*)>   ?

The Goths were not people to adhere to the formal social conventions of
other groups, I think. The Goth approach to markup would be to demolish
it and to take what they could from it and move on, perhaps :-)

Formal XML markup is closer to the Roman Empire, whose organization was
powered by bureaucracy and whose buildings, ideas, language and even
their legal systems endured long after their socks had crumbled to dust.

The trouble comes when the infrastructures we build become important,
become considered more important than the people and the people's needs.

When that happens sometimes we have to burn down the church and start
again from first principles [1], building a new church and a new
infrastructure that our grand-children will admire and, in turn,
demolish.

XML as a writing system, as a documentary system, or something very like
it, will likely endure for quite some time. XML as infrastructure, XML
Web Services, that's already crumbling away.

The answer is not to demolish the buildings, the Gothic cathedrals
(which were not of course built by the Goths but are called Gothic
meaning “ugly”), but to demolish the reverence towards the
infrastructure.  The cathedrals turn out to make fabulous venues for
rock concerts.

Liam

-- 
Liam Quin - XML Activity Lead, W3C, http://www.w3.org/People/Quin/
Pictures from old books: http://fromoldbooks.org/
Ankh: irc.sorcery.net irc.gnome.org freenode/#xml