Constraining discussion to technical matters

Andrew Layman <andrewl@microsoft.com> writes in various messages:
> [...] I'm getting a lot of pushback from database people regarding
> this point. They are very concerned that we make it possible for them 

and then:
> strongly demanded by several important user communities. It was equally

and then:
> [...] What my customers are telling me is that they want to

and then:
> The immediate needs I am hearing from customers is only to solve the

and then:
> [...] they simply need a way [...] They are not presently
> interested in any general-purpose validation, enforcement, or parsing
> language.
---------------

Discussions surrounding the development of the XML specification have
generally been based on technical merit and feasibility. Considering
that Microsoft has no external product, I assume the allusions you keep
making to your 'customers' refer to people working within Microsoft on
projects that may or may not be targeted for the open market.

Unless you've had that hidden team of 1000 programmers working night and
day on XML and are already selling into some unknown foreign market, you
have no more or less 'customers' than anyone else in this group. We all
have 'customers' (or more correctly, 'potential customers') that we wish
to serve, and the correspondent pressures from within and without our
companies and organizations.

Allusions to 'market pressure' that so dominated (and polluted) the last
days of the IETF HTML working group should have little bearing here, where
I believe the goal is to produce the best specification possible, one that
generates the _widest_ possible audience of developers and real customers.

Murray

...........................................................................
Murray Altheim, SGML Grease Monkey                  <altheim[@]eng.sun.com>
Member of Technical Staff, Tools Development & Support
Sun Microsystems, 2550 Garcia Ave., MS UMPK17-102, Menlo Park, CA 94043 USA
         "Give a monkey the tools and he'll build a typewriter."

Received on Thursday, 22 May 1997 21:34:20 UTC