Re: [xml-dev] It's too late to improve XML ... lessons learned?

I was a latecomer in the XML WG, but here are my two cents.

Delaying the release of XML 1.0 might have made it more

complicated since there were very many requests for minor

extensions.

Some features of XML (most notably XML entities) could have

been removed from XML 1.0. But I do not think that entities

(with the exception of internal parsed entities) have caused

significant problems. Moreover, the SGML camp would have

rejected XML if entities had been removed from XML.

In his Turing award lecture (1980), Tony Hoare wrote:

When any new language design project is nearing completion,
there is always a mad rush to get new features added before
standardization. The rush is mad indeed, because it leads into
a trap from which there is no escape. A feature which is omitted
can always be added later, when its design and its implications
are well understood. A feature which is included before it is fully
understood can never be removed later.

Regards,

Makoto

2021年12月29日(水) 2:44 Roger L Costello <costello@mitre.org>:

Michael Kay wrote:

> we've learnt as a community that trying to improve XML
> doesn't work: the standard is too deeply embedded.

Yes, I can see that. On this very list there have been several attempts to improve XML and none of the attempts gained much traction.

So what is the lesson to be learned from this? How about this:

When creating a new standard, get it right in its
first version because if the standard is a success
you likely won't get a chance to improve it later on.

Is that the lesson to be learned? If so, how to ensure that you "get it right"? For instance, what could the XML Working Group have done differently to get it right? Should the XML Working Group have delayed the release of the XML standard for a year or two until a sizeable group of people had had the opportunity to work with XML and report on its warts?

/Roger

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