- From: Mark Birbeck <mark.birbeck@x-port.net>
- Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2007 00:44:43 +0100
- To: "Henri Sivonen" <hsivonen@iki.fi>
- Cc: public-html@w3.org
Hi Henri, > Is there a specification that explains the processing model for > XForms in text/html in a way that is interoperable with IE+formsPlayer? Well, for better or worse, the XForms processing model doesn't define how processing is 'kicked off'. It's quite precise about what happens once the XForms processor is initiated, though, but even then its not prescriptive about things like how to find all controls that relate to a given model. So although it says that all controls for a model must be initialised at a certain point, it doesn't say how to find them. This of course gives us the best of both worlds; a clearly defined processing model, without being prescriptive about host language, parsing, and so on. > > There is actually nothing about XForms that says it > > must be delivered in an XML-based language. > > That's a bit of a stretch considering that XForms is defined to be > "an XML application". I guess it depends what you mean by that. You can use XMLHttpRequest in an HTML document, can't you? In my view, XForms can be seen as much the same thing; a powerful processor that can be incorporated into some host document/application to do all sorts of clever stuff. This could range from simple forms, through to complex desktop applications. At the end of the day, all of this stuff is about implementation. For example, one of the other products my company has built is called Sidewinder, and it allows you to create desktop applications using web standards. We allow events to be dispatched from one window to another, using DOM 2 Events...is that wrong? On the one hand, you could say that this is a bad thing because a window is not a DOM element, so what's it doing being an event target for DOM 2 Events? But on the other hand, you could say that since this allows programmers to manage inter-application communication using a paradigm they are already familiar with, it's actually a pretty good use of a standard. The same goes for XForms. Regardless of whether it has been believed or claimed that it was a language that was only for XML host languages, the reality is that it is being used today by lots of people, in an environment that is essentially HTML. Regards, Mark -- Mark Birbeck, formsPlayer mark.birbeck@x-port.net | +44 (0) 20 7689 9232 http://www.formsPlayer.com | http://internet-apps.blogspot.com standards. innovation.
Received on Thursday, 26 April 2007 23:44:50 UTC