spec-prod, xmlspec, docbook and Co.

some thoughts about xmlspec and docbook...

I attended an event in Washington last week on XML publishing format
to present how we use XML in the W3C DOM WG.
Seems that some organizations are interested in using the same XML
Schema (or whatever you like as a schema).

OASIS is leading towards the XML version of DocBook. The W3C started to use
xmlspec in 1996/1997 with the XML specification itself. I didn't look
closely at DocBook and I'm still wondering how far we go into producing
a common schema for specifications, but is there any chance that we can merge
both somehow (or use a correct extension mechanism)?
Benefits are not obvious between organizations since the documents format
are differents but for applications who would like to be able to use
our XML documents, it would improve a lot their situation (I'm thinking
about NIST in particular here).
Given that some people on this list are both in W3C and OASIS, maintaining
both formats, how huge is the gap between xmlspec and docbook?

I'm personnally not favoring xmlspec or docbook. Using an XML format is
a sufficient reason for me as long as I can describe well enough the DOM
specifications (i.e. an XML format without support for interface would be
useless).

Philippe

Received on Tuesday, 16 October 2001 18:00:57 UTC