RE: Comment on XSD 1.1

> The point 
> is getting XSD back on the track it went off a decade ago at 
> its first draft. The issue is how to build in good software 
> engineering virtues of layering and modularity, and response 
> to the initial broad use-cases, and how to do it in a 
> non-disruptive, positive, cheap, and productive way that can 
> be win-win.

Amen to that.

XSD 1.1 does a lot to alleviate the pain of users suffering from lack of
functionality in XSD 1.0. It does something, in a small way, to alleviate
the pain of those suffering from the poor readability of the spec. It does
nothing at all to reduce the size of the edifice, but by and large, that
isn't the urgent problem (as with Concorde or the Channel Tunnel, we can
write off the costs of building it).

Please don't try to deny XSD users their pain relief on the basis that we
should be working on a cure for cancer. Both are needed.

Yes, it would be nice to start a new project to do something better. There
is no guarantee such a project will succeed, but that's not a good reason
for not trying. The current working group is probably not the best place to
do it; indeed, the W3C might not be the best place to do it; organizations
as well as individuals tend to cling to the positions they have adopted in
the past. 

But none of this has anything to do, in my view, with the decision of
whether to advance XSD 1.1 to Recommendation status, for which the criteria
are (a) will this specification be implemented, and (b) if it is
implemented, will users benefit from its adoption. The WG had a remit, that
remit is still legitimate, and it has delivered on that remit.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/

Received on Wednesday, 13 May 2009 18:21:13 UTC