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RE: A multi-step approach on defining object-oriented n

• To: 'John Cowan' <jcowan@r...>
• Subject: RE: A multi-step approach on defining object-oriented n
• From: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...>
• Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2002 09:43:43 -0500
• Cc: wperry@f..., xml-dev@l...

I agree, but some of what passed for design is
is churning without progress.  

URLs are what pathbased directory systems have 
been for a long time.  The HTTP protocol reduces 
operations to a bare minimum (that is progress).
The URI is a weird but workable 
idea, and only weird because it is given primacy 
when it is actually a secondary emergent property.

Relax NG is progress.  XML Schema is progress. 
XSLT is definitely a boon but we've had transformation 
tools for years.   These aren't fundamentals.  They 
simply moved validation data into a different syntax 
then added more validation methods as any application 
language does. 

The Web did not alter the fundamentals of markup. It 
almost drove it into the sea by a reversion to its 
most primitive forms of application language.  It 
brought a lot of money and talent and some focus to the 
game.   404s recognize the fact of link maintenance. 
The previous designers chased a phantom of link 
completeness, but HTTP is not markup.

But if we claim that well-formedness as the basis 
is an innovation, one missed some progressive SGML software. 
Getting WFness into the spec as the bottom line 
was progress but also a pallative for standards guilt.  
We knew howand why; we got to quit apologizing for it 
and enduring the SGML Way tirades that wasted 
time and altered procurements.

Fighting over well-formedness vs validity 
is like fighting over co-habitation vs marriage. 
Do as you will, but remember the children.

len

-----Original Message-----
From: John Cowan [mailto:jcowan@r...]

"Bullard, Claude L (Len)" scripsit:

> The claims that the web have altered the fundamentals 
> of markup are without basis, hubristic, and somewhat 
> at the root of the restless innovation that seems to 
> churn applications but make no real progress.

There has been real progress.  URLs are real progress, even if theoretically
messy: they provide an actual, functioning, de facto document identifier
infrastructure.  RELAX NG is progress by any measure.  W3C XML Schema
includes progressive features.  By separation of concerns, XSLT and XSL:FO
represent progress over DS+L.  Unicode is real progress.

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