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XML Schemas: the wrong name

• From: Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@m...>
• To: xml-dev@x...
• Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 09:21:20 -0400

I'd like to raise a concern about XML Schemas I haven't yet seen 
elsewhere. I think "XML Schema" is the wrong name for this 
technology. Here's why:

"Schema" is a generic word used in computer science. "XML" refers to 
a specific technology. There are many XML schema languages of which 
the W3C's "XML Schema" is but one. To identify the W3C's proposed 
schema language only as "XML Schema" is to strongly imply that there 
is only one schema language for XML; and that is simply not true.

I would prefer to see RELAX, Schematron, DTDs, and the various other 
proposals slug it out in the marketplace. I do not see a need for or 
want only one XML schema language, any more than I want only one 
programming language. Different languages are appropriate for 
different uses.

I do not know what the W3C's XML schema language should be called. 
XSchema is one name I've seen bantered around, and that seems OK as 
long as it expands to "AN XML Schema Language" rather than "THE XML 
Schema Language". But it should not be called simply "XML Schema". 
That's like calling Java "VM Programming Language" even though there 
are many other languages that can be used to program the Java virtual 
machine. There are other programming languages and there are other 
schema languages. No one language should have the right to identify 
itself solely by the generic name for a technology
-- 

+-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
| Elliotte Rusty Harold | elharo@m... | Writer/Programmer |
+-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|                  The XML Bible (IDG Books, 1999)                   |
|              http://metalab.unc.edu/xml/books/bible/               |
|   http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0764532367/cafeaulaitA/   |
+----------------------------------+---------------------------------+
|  Read Cafe au Lait for Java News:  http://metalab.unc.edu/javafaq/ |
|  Read Cafe con Leche for XML News: http://metalab.unc.edu/xml/     |
+----------------------------------+---------------------------------+

• Follow-Ups:
  • RE: XML Schemas: the wrong name
    • From: Don Park <donpark@d...>
  • Re: XML Schemas: the wrong name
    • From: Rick JELLIFFE <ricko@g...>
  • Re: XML Schemas: the wrong name
    • From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@s...>
  • Re: XML Schemas: the wrong name
    • From: "Steven R. Newcomb" <srn@c...>

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