Re: Clark's commentary

/ Stephen van Egmond <svanegmond@tinyplanet.ca> was heard to say:
| Clark proclaimed that we "should be free to stab the SGML
| community, what's left of it, in the back.", claiming that SGML
| compatibility is now of much lesser importance.   This seems like a
| highly dubious claim - what constraints does the SGML influences
| inflict upon us?

In a sense, we've already stabbed them in the back with namespaces. As
far as continuing influences, the first thing that comes to mind is
determinism. After that, I think a solution to the general problem of
character entities in a post-DTD world will probably require a
complete break with SGML.

| Clark recommended that XML Namespaces and Infoset be merged into the
| XML core spec, and DTDs be supplanted. Architecturally, is this an
| improvement, or no?

Probably. I think I'd (personally) be in favor of an XML 2.0 if *and
only if* there was agreement beforehand that XML 2.0 would be XML 1.0
+ Namespaces + the Infoset + XML Base. (And not one iota more or less;
no other changes. None. Not one.)

Without the proviso that there would be no other changes, the XML 2.0
effort would turn into a 90 person committee with everyone wanting to
add or subtract their own favorite or most hated features and the
effort would fail or produce something unusable.

I suppose the salient question is, would the considerable effort that
would be required just to do the editorial work actually be the best
use of limited resources. I dunno.

| Is routing XML documents for processing /that/ big a deal?  Don't
| systems already know what to do with their XML docs?

Yes, and no, respectively :-)

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

-- 
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Received on Monday, 7 January 2002 10:27:55 UTC