RE: W3C XForms vs Alternative XML UI Language Formats

Well said Mark! -- Or to coin a phrase,
many of the other XML "UI languages" are only screen-deep.

>>>>> "Mark" == Mark Birbeck <mark.birbeck@x-port.net> writes:
    Mark> Gerald, You are spot on that XForms has within it an
    Mark> "XML UI language". As it happens, it's one of the only
    Mark> languages in your list that can truly claim that; most
    Mark> of the others are "XML GUI languages" or "XML widget
    Mark> languages" since they deal in the main with
    Mark> presentation to the user in a way that is strongly
    Mark> bound to desktops in a windowing environment.
    Mark> 
    Mark> But just to clarify, Raman's point about XForms being
    Mark> "an architecture" was to emphasise that XForms' real
    Mark> power comes from its model - what sometimes gets called
    Mark> 'the engine'. Specifying GUI (or widget) languages is
    Mark> not exactly difficult, but defining a
    Mark> 'spreadsheet'-style calculation engine, that fires
    Mark> events to the front-end and maintains CSS state, allows
    Mark> for XML data manipulation such as submission and
    Mark> validation, and all without scripting - now that's a
    Mark> "user interface language".
    Mark> 
    Mark> Best regards,
    Mark> 
    Mark> Mark
    Mark> 
    Mark> 
    Mark> PS Keep up the excellent work - the "XUL Challenge" is
    Mark> a great initiative (and I'm quite enjoying it!).
    Mark> 
    Mark> 
    Mark> Mark Birbeck CEO and CTO x-port.net Ltd.
    Mark> 
    Mark> Download our XForms processor from
    Mark> http://www.formsPlayer.com/
    Mark> 
    Mark> 
    Mark> 
    >> -----Original Message----- From: www-forms-request@w3.org
    >> [mailto:www-forms-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Gerald
    >> Bauer Sent: 26 April 2004 17:53 To: www-forms@w3.org Cc:
    >> tvraman@almaden.ibm.com Subject: Re: W3C XForms vs
    >> Alternative XML UI Language Formats
    >> 
    >> 
    >> 
    >> Hello,
    >> 
    >> > It should be made clear that XForms is *not* a XML > UI
    >> language
    >> 
    >> Well, XForms is clearly a XML UI language.
    >> 
    >> 1) XForms is XML.  2) XForms includes tags for widgets
    >> (e.g. <trigger>, <textarea>, <range> etc.)
    >> 
    >> > -- XForms is about an XML Forms architecture that > uses
    >> an XML > model that can be bound to multiple UI languages
    >> > --- including XHTML.
    >> 
    >> I understand that W3C XForms needs a hosting language and
    >> is not a standalone markup language.
    >> 
    >> Please, note that you can also bind alternative XML UI
    >> languages to different toolkits (e.g. Swing, Eclipse,
    >> Windows Forms, etc.) or even other markup languages
    >> (e.g. SVG, XHTML, etc.).
    >> 
    >> > In fact the real XUL challenge > for Mozilla/xul fans to
    >> bind an XUL UI to an XForms > model.
    >> 
    >> Just to clarify the XUL challenge is about XML UI
    >> languages (including XForms) not about Mozilla XUL. I use
    >> XML UI language like XML schema language as a generic term
    >> e.g. there are many more XML schema languages than W3C's
    >> XML schema language. The same goes for XML UI
    >> languages. Mozilla's XML UI language (XUL) is just one of
    >> many XML UI languages.
    >> 
    >> - Gerald
    >> 
    >> -------------------
    >> Gerald Bauer Open XUL Alliance - A Rich Internet For
    >> Everyone | http://xul.sourceforge.net XUL News Wire |
    >> http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.xul.announce
    >> 
    >> ______________________________________________________________
    >> ________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca
    >> 

-- 
Best Regards,
--raman
------------------------------------------------------------
T. V. Raman:  PhD (Cornell University)
IBM Research: Human Language Technologies
Architect:    Conversational And Multimodal WWW Standards
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Received on Monday, 26 April 2004 19:46:43 UTC