RE: NetScape/IE

I agree strongly with the idea of XForms importance as a generic "dialog"
definition language which can be translated into whichever implementation
the target browser uses.

One day (God willing!), mainstream browsers will support XForms, and the
circle will be complete. Until that distant time, 
XForms could still be a vital standard for those working on multi-channel,
multi-protocol applications.

Kit Davies
Engineering 
Categoric Software 
 
www.categoric.com <http://www.categoric.com>  

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sebastian Schnitzenbaumer [mailto:schnitz@mozquito.com]
> Sent: 03 August 2001 11:18
> To: Bjoern Hoehrmann; Jilani, Rashid
> Cc: www-forms@w3.org
> Subject: RE: NetScape/IE
> 
> 
> I agree that Microsoft and Netscape are
> unlikely to support XForms, but I very
> strongly disagree with the disruptive
> pseudo-quote "There is nothing called
> XForms, it's just a draft...".
> 
> Only because Microsoft and Netscape do not 
> support XForms, for whatever reasons, this 
> is no indication at all whether XForms is 
> a good idea, whether it solves an important 
> problem and thus whether it has a market we
> will see products being offered for. 
> 
> Or the other way around: Even if Microsoft
> and Netscape *would* support XForms, how
> long would you think it would take until 
> XForms can be used, ie. at least 80% of all
> browsers deployed out there have native 
> XForms support?
> 
> It would take several years, and no-one here
> is willing to wait until then, since XForms
> is needed, and needed now.
> 
> XSLT, for example, took off quite well 
> without Microsoft and Netscape ever 
> implementing it in the browser. So can we all
> stop judging important standards and technologies 
> based on Microsoft's interests and strategies 
> for a moment?
> 
> XForms is very similar to XSLT in the way that 
> XForms as a concept can be implemented as a 
> generic server-side transformation process, 
> transcoding XForms into whatever you want
> and whatever the client can process.
> 
> Since XForms is *very* flexible (Three parts:
> Model, Data Instance and UI, whereas every
> part in itself is flexible - use any arbitrary
> XML instance for data, use any existent or
> custom UI markup language for the UI, use a
> small subset, or all of XML Schema as the basis
> for the Model), we do not see a single 
> implementation of XForms, but various depending 
> on the specific needs. XForms is a highly 
> modular, application level W3C technology with
> a million use cases, solving a simple problem
> by giving XML a standard, bi-directional 
> Human-Computer-Interface framework other XML
> applications can build upon.
> 
> Because of that, several companies have already
> customly implemented XForms in their software 
> projects, leveraging the full power of XForms
> for them without having to wait for Microsoft 
> and Netscape.
> 
> All the best,
> 
> Sebastian
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Bjoern Hoehrmann [mailto:derhoermi@gmx.net]
> > Sent: Friday, August 03, 2001 4:13 AM
> > To: Jilani, Rashid
> > Cc: 'www-forms@w3.org'
> > Subject: Re: NetScape/IE
> > 
> > 
> > * Jilani, Rashid wrote:
> > >Hi: Can any one inform me what are the stand of NetSacpe and 
> > IE on XForms.
> > >Are they planning to support it for their nexr future release?
> > 
> > My personal opinion is that this is __very__ unlikely, especially
> > because Microsoft hasn't announced XForms support [1] for IE 6 and
> > Netscape will release NN6.1 very soon.
> > 
> > [1] There is nothing called XForms, it's just a draft...
> > -- 
> > Björn Höhrmann { mailto:bjoern@hoehrmann.de } 
> > http://www.bjoernsworld.de
> > am Badedeich 7 } Telefon: +49(0)4667/981028 { 
> > http://bjoern.hoehrmann.de
> > 25899 Dagebüll { PGP Pub. KeyID: 0xA4357E78 } 
> > http://www.learn.to/quote/
> > 
> > 
>