Re: [xml-dev] Announce: XML Schema, The W3C's Object-Oriented Des criptions for XML

Bullard, Claude L (Len) wrote:
>   Whatever the merits of James' analysis, 
> it is about two years too late.

I really hope you're wrong.  Early days yet.

> Let me ask: should we quit claiming to be creating 
> standards and admit the role of specifications? That 
> is, one implements a spec and assumes the risk that 
> it may have flaws.  A standard, by contrast, should be 
> relatively risk free because the implemented technologies 
> and the communities that use them have uncovered them.

Oh "standards" are "risk-free" are they?  I know a guy who can tell you 
about the greater than a billion dollars he helped a well-known computer 
company piss away betting on OSI networking.  I could cite the name of a 
half-dozen other "standards" that are now industry in-jokes, and so 
could you Len.  The notion that a standard's origin has much to do with 
how good it is is unsupported by the evidence.  -Tim