[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message]

RE: Symbol Grounding and Running Code: Is XML Really Extensib

• To: 'james anderson' <james.anderson@s...>, xml-dev@l...
• Subject: RE: Symbol Grounding and Running Code: Is XML Really Extensible?
• From: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...>
• Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 11:48:03 -0500

BTW, there is a missing piece of what I've been describing: 
user satisfaction.   This one is hard to quantify and predict, 
so it seldom if ever is mentioned in contracting for systems 
procurement:  how well can the end user do the job the software 
is designed to help them do?  How could we engineer a just 
in time code registry source to ensure the system delivered 
to the end user is at maximum effectiveness for doing the 
job?  That is a rather tough nut to crack, I think.

If we laugh or scoff at that one, we tend to go out of business. 
But can we qualify it or warrant it?  

What I know of software design and the relationship to the customer 
is that feedback and customer participation in specifying assemblies 
is vital.  This yet another problem of the relationship of core 
providers and middle system providers:  to get changes into the 
software to improve features or provide higher satisfaction for 
the end users, features are planned and scheduled.  That enables 
the customer to predict when a feature will be available.  Open 
source models, by reputation, aren't as reliable when it comes 
to predicting a release.  The Mozilla project is famous for 
that problem.  On the other hand, closed sources such as proprietary 
vendors also slip releases and may not have the kinds of communications 
with the middle tier vendors and end users that enable them to 
gather up the needed information.  So there are gaps in the 
scheduling and the communications.

Projects such as X3D were spawned out of a community in which 
the authors and the system implementors have enjoyed fairly good 
fraternal relationships (say, willing to go onto a big list 
and duke it out loud and long).  That is one model.  I realize 
such forums exist for most languages and for the closed source 
vendors.   How to relate that to scheduling is a mystery to me.

len

• Prev by Date: Re: Java SAX tools (was: Re: Adding standalone="yes" to XML document)
• Next by Date: RE: thinking about "namespace pedantry"
• Previous by thread: RE: Symbol Grounding and Running Code: Is XML Really Extensible?
• Next by thread: RE: Symbol Grounding and Running Code: Is XML Really Extensible?
• Index(es):
  • Date
  • Thread