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Re: xml:namespace

• To: xml-dev@l...
• Subject: Re: xml:namespace
• From: David Megginson <david@m...>
• Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 11:36:38 -0400
• In-reply-to: <3EBD133C.5000304@t...>
• References: <5.2.0.9.2.20030508141644.00aea4d8@p...><5.2.0.9.2.20030507181836.00af5d40@p...><f7jibvogorhif66ed6bvs8utkv1mn7r3gf@4...><c5cmbvkcgobkomvegrvvddtufd3v86p6r5@4...><5.2.0.9.2.20030509173512.00b0bda0@p...><asfpbvg7ifbsneadv085f54dtjcou1jjoc@4...><3EBD133C.5000304@t...>

Tim Bray writes:

 > I disagree.  While I still dislike the AF attribute remapping syntax, I 
 > think there was a whole complex of great ideas lurking in there that 
 > failed to succeed because the language used to describe them was more or 
 > less completely impenetrable.  I know I pretty well completely failed to 
 > understand it, and only kind of got it when walked through step by step 
 > with lots of examples, and subsequently remained completely unable to 
 > follow the discussions among the cognoscenti.

I did my best to promote AF's right around the time XML 1.0 came out,
but I agree with Tim that language was the biggest barrier to
adoption.  RDF and Topic Maps suffer from much the same problem --
there is a tendency for people to take a simple concept like element
aliases (Architectural Forms) or entity/relationship serialization
(RDF, Topic Maps) and bury it in such obtuse and self-aggrandizing
language that no one can make head or tails of the specification.

I have to admit that as members of the old XML WG, Tim and I allowed
some of the same kind of thing to happen with the Namespace
specification: you wouldn't guess from a first (or third) read through
the REC that Namespaces are nothing more than XML package names, like
the package systems in Java, Python, or Perl.

XML 1.0 is a good counter-example -- an honest spec that uses plain
language without sacrificing technical quality.


All the best,


David

-- 
David Megginson, david@m..., http://www.megginson.com/

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