Fwd: RE: Is or isn't scripting needed, was RE: XForms vs. Web Forms

Forwarded to list per Adrian's request

Eric

------- Forwarded message -------
From: "Adrian Baker" <Adrian.Baker@orion.co.nz>
To: "Dharmesh Mistry" <Dharmesh.Mistry@edgeipk.com>, "Eric S. Fisher"  
<efisher@fsystems.com>, www-forms@w3.org
Subject: RE: Is or isn't scripting needed, was RE: XForms vs. Web Forms
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 13:02:19 +1300

When placing out company's bet on form technology, we wanted a clean,
non-proprietary way of expressing our forms that could be easily output
& maintained by our in-house design tools. Having worked with forms
defined and maintained in HTML+script (client customisable on top of
that), we breathed a sigh of relief at being able to shift to a
declarative non-script based technology.

The delivery solution was somewhat secondary, whether we render and
handle interactions server side (Chiba) or client side with plugin or
native browser support, or transform to PDF, or render to a
non-browser-suitable client (think PDA). Or to a Web Forms 2.0 client.
And as has been mentioned, we want access to the form validation on the
server side regardless.

Granted, we're operating firmly in an application development area
rather than more casual forms delivered over the Internet : it's a pity
to see (quite valid) arguments grounded firmly in the latter not being
presented as such.

Given the 'difficulty' of adoption of new technology in browsers, a
bridging & backwards compatible technology like Web Forms 2.0 seems
smart initiative. So again, it's a pity that we're here defending one
against the other when both specs are from open non-commercial groups. I
know Ian you've stated more than once in and out of the spec that Web
Forms 2.0 isn't targeted as a replacement for XForms, and I think some
of the reporting hasn't done that justice. But then again a blog by the
spec author titled 'XForms Myths' is hardly fuelling co-existence, let
alone any sort of collaborative direction, even if it is very well
argued & valid.

Well, St Patrick's day beckons, along with pubs & green beer. No doubt
I'll be drinking cranberry juice tomorrow.

Adrian
www.orionhealth.com

-----Original Message-----
From: www-forms-request@w3.org [mailto:www-forms-request@w3.org] On
Behalf Of Dharmesh Mistry
Sent: Thursday, 17 March 2005 11:22 a.m.
To: Eric S. Fisher; www-forms@w3.org
Subject: RE: Is or isn't scripting needed, was RE: XForms vs. Web Forms

...

Macromedia say that they plug-in is in over 80% of browsers, Java a
similar amount, PDF......What percentage has XForms. Don't get me wrong,
I'd prefer 1 standards based technology, but as a software company we
need to be commercial about placing bets on technology.



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Received on Thursday, 17 March 2005 00:58:47 UTC