[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: Announce: XML Schema, The W3C's Object-Oriented Des cripti
Yeah, standards fail too. But let's ask if the process will be improved, and the risk made more evident if we separate specs from standards and assert claims based on two different processes with two different sets of inputs. As I recall, the W3C started out like that. What information or revelation changed that stance? It may not fix the problem of a flawed standard, but it could be better. I realize that the W3C also wants implementations before it signs off, but evidently, that hasn't work in this case. Risk management: Maybe when we know that a spec and the technology it requests have global risks, we have to slow it down. Given vendor domination, it is hard to do that at the W3C and no single individual should have to stand up to that kind of pressure. If we separate these, then we put the risks right up front. It isn't a problem of who; it is a perception of authority over expertise and unknowns. DSDL appears to be sensible. Why? Because the experts now have a solid foundation of mistakes and successes. Factoring these out, doing the merging is now not a matter of guesswork. In my opinion, that makes the technology a ripe candidate for a standard. What is the problem here? It means a delayed gratification and a longer risk for early adopters. We would have to accept that we might have to toss one or two away; even ones we paid for. Ok. How is that diffferent than what we are doing now? len -----Original Message----- From: Tim Bray [mailto:tbray@t...] Bullard, Claude L (Len) wrote: > Whatever the merits of James' analysis, > it is about two years too late. I really hope you're wrong. Early days yet. > Let me ask: should we quit claiming to be creating > standards and admit the role of specifications? That > is, one implements a spec and assumes the risk that > it may have flaws. A standard, by contrast, should be > relatively risk free because the implemented technologies > and the communities that use them have uncovered them. Oh "standards" are "risk-free" are they? I know a guy who can tell you about the greater than a billion dollars he helped a well-known computer company [expletive deleted] away betting on OSI networking. I could cite the name of a half-dozen other "standards" that are now industry in-jokes, and so could you Len. The notion that a standard's origin has much to do with how good it is is unsupported by the evidence. -Tim
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