[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] XML-DEV as virtual community (was Re: XSchema Question 2: Namespaces)
At 21:46 04/06/98 -0700, Jon Bosak wrote: [...] > >| Assuming we are *technically* successful, that helps build up a >| virtual community which knows how to tackle problems in a virtual >| manner. In that respect I feel the current membership is rather >| special :-). > >It is indeed an amazing collection of talent. > >| Personally there is no way that *I* can tackle the current XSL spec >| since the requirements are quite outside my capability even to >| comprehend :-) There is a very large emphasis on typography - >| implementing XSL requires it to have the functionality of TeX as a >| subset. > >Implementing XSL requires it to have the functionality of DSSSL. Take >a look at Jade. Are you telling me that the collective resources of >this entire group aren't adequate to the production of something that >equals what James Clark can do by himself? > Thanks, Jon. Actually I frequently feel that the best programs are either written by a large number of people or a single one. What we see on the Web in general is a process of evolution in the Darwinian sense. Many solutions are not planned, they evolve [1]. The uses to which HTML has been put represent the results of experiments, a few of which have worked, and a great many of which fail. A successful idea (or 'meme' to use Richard Dawkins' term) can breed very quickly on the WWW. XML-DEV is a breeding ground for XML memes. Many ideas are seeded and a very few survive. We cannot expect those to be the 'best' in some absolute sense, but they will be 'good'. They will coexist with a competing fluid ecosystem of other memes. The membership of XML-DEV grows steadily - Henry tells me it's about 1200 (and I suspect that the readership is higher since it's probably syndicated in some organisations). I therefore don't think we are 'depleting the energy resources' by working on this problem. It's interesting that many of the people involved are quite distinct from those involved in SAX. I think this represents an influx of talent that may have come from the non-SGML community and in this sense it may bring fresh insights. I am interested and flattered that you see XML-DEV having a positive role for XSL. Perhaps - when it is released - it would be clear what the areas are in which implementation will be seen as valuable. Implementing XSL is a very large project and will require modularisation. If that modularity is clear in the spec, that will be a great help. In that case I am sure there are many readers who will find modules that they: - need - would like to contribute to - have the appropriate skills (and work with interoperable technology - e.g. language) and they - are happy to do this in public - are happy to work in the XML-DEV manner (i.e. no formal guarantee that their work will ultimately count for anything) For my own purposes I would love to see an effort on the non-typographical aspects of XSL. We need to have mechanisms for implementing behaviour. This is probably complementary to the (?main) effort in rendering XML for human readers. P. [1] The infrastructure of the Web (e.g. the protocols) is , of course, very carefully regulated and cannot vary. It corresponds to the basic machinery of any organism - essentially all use the same genetic code. But above that there is great flexibility. Peter Murray-Rust, Director Virtual School of Molecular Sciences, domestic net connection VSMS http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/vsms, Virtual Hyperglossary http://www.venus.co.uk/vhg xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev@i... Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@i... the following message; (un)subscribe xml-dev To subscribe to the digests, mailto:majordomo@i... the following message; subscribe xml-dev-digest List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@i...)
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