[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: Colonialism, SAX, Java, and Namespaces
Paul Prescod wrote: > I used the term *dumb down* in reference to *myself*. The average > developer is a dummy in all but a few fields, just like me. We cannot > restrict all fields until they are simple enough for everyone to > understand. As someone pointed out recently, we wouldn't have a > technologically advancing civilization if we did that. If we cannot agree > on that much then further discussion is not going to be productive. I don't think Simon is asking for simpler technology. I think he's asking for more explanatory writing in the specs. Precision is almost impossible to achieve in spoken languages -- there is always somebody clever or foolish enough to "misinterpret" the most basic words -- and so the question is whether you write a short, highly formal spec, interpret it afterward, and hope that everybody hears/understands you, or write a longer, perhaps less formal spec, interpret it place, and hope you don't introduce inconsistencies and ambiguities, or go somewhere in between. Personally, I vote for the longer, slightly less formal route, as I believe it leads to wider acceptance and, in the long run, less misinterpretation. That said, I've written enough specs in my lifetime that I sympathize with anyone who writes one at all, no matter what style they choose. -- Ron Bourret 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/ and on CD-ROM/ISBN 981-02-3594-1 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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