Cart
|
[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: Microsoft's Role in the XML Community (WAS RE: Important: The SAXC+
 One remembers that the MSIE5 implementation of the December 1998 draft of XSL not only failed to implement the entire spec as of that time (no crime in that, it was billed as a developers' release) ... but what was more troublesome, it provided extra features without documenting that they weren't XSL. This was *after* the XSL draft had outlined the use of namespaces for extensions -- all MS's extensions were in the http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-xsl namespace. It would have been so easy, and arguably such good marketing, for them to have provided, for example, <msxml:eval> instead of the putative <xsl:eval>. (Actually even their current, closer-to-spec implementation offers such features, notably an implicit casting of result-tree-fragment to node-set that is explicitly against the recommendation. All others have put this useful functionality into an extension namespace.) But this is old news to many readers of this list, since the XSL community has had to bear the burden of educating new users ever since: it's an ongoing problem. The particular fine points involved are deep water for most newbies, who only want to get XSL working quickly as advertised. It ends up reflecting badly on the whole technology. "Er, 'namespace'?" >From the outside it's impossible to know how or why things happen this way, and I'm willing to give MS developers credit -- they are at least moving in the right direction with XSL. Yet this case, like others, tends to justify our wariness. "Eternal vigilance," etc. And while attitude says a lot, it does seem we need to make a distinction between the constructive engagement of engineers from MS, and the conduct of the company as a whole. Nor would it be a good thing for Microsoft if Dave Megginson proves to be wrong about their plans (or eventually, actions) with respect to SAX. He's one wolf it couldn't be good for *anyone* to burn.... Regards, Wendell Piez (still a standards hawk) At 10:21 AM 6/17/00 -0500, Len wrote: >Ahh.. I understand now. They broke the spirit of the >agreement to provide full interoperability.... >And as with the Java cup, if they aren't fully >interoperable, it is Microsoft's responsibility >to show its customers precisely where, and obligating >them to that responsibility is part of the purchase >of the product. An average shrink wrap buyer can't >do that, but large institutions can, do, and must. >Making language available to those institutions for >that purpose is something MIT can do for its community >of users. ====================================================================== Wendell Piez mailto:wapiez@m... Mulberry Technologies, Inc. http://www.mulberrytech.com 17 West Jefferson Street Direct Phone: 301/315-9635 Suite 207 Phone: 301/315-9631 Rockville, MD 20850 Fax: 301/315-8285 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mulberry Technologies: A Consultancy Specializing in SGML and XML ====================================================================== *************************************************************************** This is xml-dev, the mailing list for XML developers. To unsubscribe, mailto:majordomo@x...&BODY=unsubscribe%20xml-dev List archives are available at http://xml.org/archives/xml-dev/ *************************************************************************** 
|
PURCHASE STYLUS STUDIO ONLINE TODAY!Purchasing Stylus Studio from our online shop is Easy, Secure and Value Priced! 
Download The World's Best XML IDE!Accelerate XML development with our award-winning XML IDE - Download a free trial today! Subscribe in XML format
|
|||||||||
