[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: Is XML getting too hard? (was: Re: More on Namespaces...)
David Megginson writes: >What frightens me is the danger that some people might forget about >layering and try to overload the XML core. XML 1.0 has some warts, >but in general, it's beautifully simple. I have no objection to >seeing RDF, DCD, Namespaces, etc. built *on top of* XML, but I don't >want to see them built *into* XML -- imagine if every program that >worked with ASCII had to be able to parse C++ as well, or if every IP >router had to know about HTTP! David's got it right, though routers are learning more about HTTP all the time. (_Expensive_ ones, anyway.) I think layering may provide an elegant answer to the schema/feature clusterbombing we're experience now, though it too may require some reconfiguration of XML. Basically, it looks like we have: * Core syntax (<, >, / - elements, attributes, the XML declaration) * Minimization (entities and their friends, plus lots of other charmers) * Schemas (DTDs, DCDs, XSchemas, RDF, etc.) * Data typing (Goes with schemas, but I'd like to see it independent of any particular schema) * Linking (XLink) * Referencing (XPointer) [Yes, I know I'm making a questionable distinction.] * Styling (CSS, XSL) * Core syntax extensions - namespaces, xml:lang, xml:space We need to find a way to keep these things separate while making sure they can work with each other, and not muddy the name XML too terribly. If understanding XML is going to require namespaces and RDF, a lot of folks are going to choke. If XML is about elements and attributes and the rest of it is gravy, then I think we'll be all right. I was going to write a very grumpy essay about this, but it looks like it's a widely held concern that people in the right places will likely notice, so I'll keep the fire and brimstone to a minimum. Simon St.Laurent Dynamic HTML: A Primer / XML: A Primer / Cookies 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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