Fwd: XForms vs. Web Forms

I just read this article (all five Web pages) and cannot conclude from it  
that Web Forms 2.0 is the "winner."  I thought the article was a balanced  
comparison with fair reporting of the real issues confronting XForms  
acceptance.

As I said in my earlier post, they are two different specs:  Web Forms is  
backward-looking and more or less automatically compatible with the  
current generation of browsers.  XForms is forward-looking and is more  
concerned with being an open and compatible player in the XML based Web  
services arena than in being compatible with earlier technologies.  In  
order to have XForms capability in current browsers, you have to download  
a plug-in, just like Macromedia Flash, Real Player and Apple QuickTime, to  
name just three.

I see no reason at all to consider XForms a dead end just because it is  
not supported natively in current browsers.  If this were true, Macromedia  
Flash, Real Player and Apple QuickTime would also be limited this way --  
and I have never heard users of any of these technologies complain because  
they had to download a plug-in.

Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.  There are a lot of  
people, most especially Microsoft, that would like to see the XForms  
effort fail.  Truly open standards are fundamently incompatible with  
lock-in strategies of any sort.  XForms opens the door to a number of  
truly astounding applications not invented yet, and its openness provides  
the user and developer communities with options for innovation and  
competition that would be unavailable otherwise.  We can go down both  
development paths without losing any momentum on either.  That's the glory  
of the Internet.

Eric S. Fisher

------- Forwarded message -------
From: "Peter Bruhn Andersen" <bruhn.andersen@get2net.dk>
To: www-forms@w3.org
Subject: XForms vs. Web Forms
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 10:03:36 +0100

I've just seen this article
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5581106.html



It 'compares' XForms to the Web Forms 2.0 specification and concludes
that Web Forms is the winner.



I have no knowledge about the Web Forms specification so I would like to
hear what the group thinks about the article. And perhaps more to the
point: Should we keep using XForms or should we switch to Web Forms?



Regards,

Peter



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Received on Wednesday, 16 March 2005 14:50:05 UTC