Re: [xml-dev] Which is the Authority: The Schema or the Text?

[Steve Newcomb <srn@coolheads.com>]

Len, I think you're arguing in favor of the rule of law.  I just don't
think it's very easy these days to get people to face up to the sheer
inconvenience of keeping civilization running, much less volunteer to
bear any of the cost on their own budgets.  It's always somebody else's
burden, not theirs.

Toward the end of the G.W. Bush administration, I had a bumper sticker
on my car that read, "IMPEACH ALL SCOFFLAW PRESIDENTS".  Since Obama's
election, I've been, uh, unimpressed with the respect for the rule of
law demonstrated by his administration.

I'm not even bothering to put a new bumper sticker on my car; my rage is
exhausted.  It's the Zeitgeist, man.  These are the Years of Deferred
Maintenance for all the institutions of liberty.  If somebody asks you
why you're ignoring all the public and private law (including XML
schemas) that should be constraining your behavior, the following
explanation seems to work for the entire Executive Branch of the U.S.
government, all U.S. telecom companies, and, I suspect, most federal
contractors:

"9/11. 9/11! 9/11? 9/11!! 9/11; 9/11. 9/11: 9/11, 9/11, ..."

which, roughly translated, means, "It's inconvenient."

> It's a messy world and gets messier the longer one ignores the rules. 
> Creativity and pipelines of data that has to be both correct by
> construction and in compliance to enable decoupled processes do not
> congeal happily or cheaply.
> 
> len