RE: XForms - "Suspend and resume support"

I disagree that xforms by and of itself is harder to learn than html
forms.

<form action="xyz">
<input name="firstname"/>
</form>

Vs:

<xforms:submission action="xyz"/>
<xforms:input ref="/application/firstname"/>

(This example uses lazy binding). XML is an astoundingly simple concept
to grasp to anyone with real-world development experience. The great
thing about XML is the technologies to use with it (xslt / xpath / dom)
are so accessible and lend themselves well to real problems developers
approach. Learning xml is simple enough, translating an html forms page
to xforms is simple enough.

And then the developer opens themselves up to an entire world of
toolsets and functionality. (As well as adding buzzword compliance to
his/her CV).

Now - taking html forms into a real-world, server-side application
environment - I find xforms infinitely easier and quicker to develop
with.

<?PHP 
	// Access database
?>
<form action="xyz">
<input name="firstname" value="<? echo rs["xyz"] ?>/>
<?
	if (invalid(rs["xyz"])){
		echo "<span>Must be populated</span";
	}
?>
</form>

Vs

<xforms:submission action="xyz"/>
<xforms:instance src="abc"/>
<xforms:input ref="/application/firstname"/>

Xforms has ~ 70% less code per field. Now - multiply that out by the 150
field forms I do in my daily job - and Xforms provides huge development
savings. Plus relevancy, data binding, repeat items, browser-based
delivery and schemas/dom/xslt.

Regards,
Ben

-----Original Message-----
XForms 1.0 in its totality is indeed harder to learn than HTML Forms,
but it does a lot more without resorting to scripting. I would claim
that it is a lot *less* complicated than HTML Forms if you include in
the comparison the scripting you have to do in order to achieve the
things that are in XForms.

Received on Monday, 5 May 2003 19:38:30 UTC