RE: Is W3C Technology Fragmented or Unified?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: RUST Randal
> Geoff Deering wrote:
>
> > Is the W3C fragmenting the web with all these technologies or
> > are we missing something?  Why can't best of practice
> > XHTML/CSS/WAI address most of these issues?
>
> This is exactly what I am saying with my call to reorganize WCAG 2.0. It
> has to all fit together, otherwise the W3C is defeating its own purpose.
>
> There is so much confusion or ignorance over W3C Recommendations that
> most people simply ignore them. I have given presentations at my company
> on HTML to web developers who have never even coded HTML by hand, and
> wouldn't know the first thing about it.
>
> ----------
> Randal Rust
> Covansys Corp.
> Columbus, OH
>

I probably did not explain the issue I am targeting properly.  What I am
saying is not specifically WAI/WCAG related, but I was looking for feedback
from others to see what they think in trying to address all the W3C
technologies.

People on this list are developers that often are met with a lot of
challenges to deploy applications and interfaces that meet various technical
standards, requirements and code validity, so I would expect they think and
are concerned about these issues.

Here's a mock scenario.  Client says they want a site that is user managed
and driven by content, and that it has to be able to deliver content to W3C
specifications.  They spell everything out in the business and functional
specs.  They want;

XHTML Strict (wrapping pages in <xml> declarations where user-agents accept
XHTML correctly)
WCAG1 P1 & P2
CSS for each media type where applicable.
Content generated for and deliver to multiple devices
RDF feeds
OWL feeds for Semantic Web
HTML-Print where applicable
HTML-Basic where applicable
XForms 1 & 2 where applicable
VoiceXML
XHTML+Voice
Speech Synthesis Markup Language
Speech Recognition Grammar Format
Kitchen Sink Shebang (I made that one up)

It seems to me that this is where we are heading, very complex subsets of
markup generated for various targets requiring complex CMSs and complex
templating and TCN.

Were we just dreaming to try and keep this a simple process?  Or was that
just being naive?  Why couldn't the semantic web have been addressed by
properly marked up documents that are semantically rich in themselves?

How can one easily deploy something like XHTML + Voice (X+V), without too
much development?  Why do we need this?  Doesn't it say that there are too
many shortcomings in current markup if we need something like this?  If so
just what is the road ahead.

I know I have enough on my hands just trying to keep up with basic W3C
technologies.  Whose the guru who has all this encapsulated in a vision
*AND* really knows how to deploy all this in one CMS?

If anything, all this is keeping developers in a job.

I just want to know that the people steering this ship are sober, and not
drunk on technospirits.

2cw
Geoff Deering

Received on Wednesday, 25 August 2004 13:16:37 UTC