Re: is anyone interested in XHTML?

On Thu, 17 Feb 2000, Russell Steven Shawn O'Connor wrote:

> I must admit that I haven't been excited over XHTML.  It actually
> goes back to HTML 4.0 for me.

Redefining HTML as an XML app - essentially by fiat - is just an
exercise in wishful thinking.  Much more useful, I would think, are
XML document types *based* on the core ideas of HTML, i.e. some form
of HTML usable in XML-aware environments.  (XHTML 1.1, with its
modularization, is a step in the right direction: it gets us thinking
about the modules we can really use, as opposed to the years of crud
that have accreted.)

> It was also about this time I started to learn aobut WebSGML and
> Architectural forms.  I've more or less come to the conclusion
> that the W3C is reinventing the wheel, and not doing a very good
> joba with it forms, WebSGML, groves, HyTime etc., all are better
> products than DOM, XLINK, XML, etc. (IMHO).

Well, the W3C - more precisely, the Powers That Be in the W3C with
visions of grandeur - prefers a bogosity called "namespaces" over AFs;
Infosets will reinvent groves, XLINK has (usefully) subsetted HyTime;
and there's another magnificent deus ex machina called Schemas being
hyped hysterically.

It's like a revivalist meeting.  Schemas, hosannah!  Namespaces,
hallelujah!  You gotta believe.  Amen, Brother.

> So I want to focus on figuring out how to use these tools, rather
> that watch the W3C walk down the wrong path. (IMHO again).

A philosopher (the good reasons for his unpopularity these days have
nothing to do with his talent for insightful commentary) observed that
history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. 

This, too, will pass. 



Arjun

Received on Friday, 18 February 2000 22:56:57 UTC