Re: [xml-dev] A question of necessity

[Steve Newcomb <srn@coolheads.com>]

On 04/25/2016 11:56 AM, Dave Pawson wrote:
> So to advance it's (still useful) ideas, it needs work? Or the parts still
> relevant to the world of XML? If only the AF aspect?
I wish I could spend more time on your questions, but it's not raining 
work for me right now, it's pouring.

Briefly, and FWIW, here is my opinion:

(1) A lot has happened since HyTime.  A lot of good work, and a lot of 
well-intentioned work, by a lot of people, in a lot of contexts.

(2) HyTime did not descend from Sinai.  I can personally testify to that!

(3) My own thinking has evolved a lot, as has the thinking of everyone 
who worked on it, as far as I know.

(4) Nevertheless, there's an awful lot there that's really worthwhile 
and still timely.  HyTime still addresses problems that have only become 
more urgent with the passage of time, and are very challenging to 
explain other than in a TLDR.

(5) But HyTime doesn't use fashionable syntaxes.  I like DTDs, because I 
like text files that are intrinsically user interfaces, but there are 
better, more modern, less quirky choices now.  You ask an interesting 
and quite complex question, Dave.

(6) Every standards process is horrible, private or public. Jawboning 
and especially storytelling is better, more renewable, and less 
corruptible.  I think.