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Re: [Fwd: The problems with Xlink for integration languages]

• To: "Thomas B. Passin" <tpassin@c...>
• Subject: Re: [Fwd: The problems with Xlink for integration languages]
• From: Tim Bray <tbray@t...>
• Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2002 07:47:39 -0700
• Cc: xml-dev@l...
• References: <E17qPSL-0002It-00@m...> <68872854568.20020917004759@j...> <016401c25e0e$f48316a0$fe193044@tbp1>
• User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.1) Gecko/20020826

Thomas B. Passin wrote:

> With great respect to Jeni, I think that something has gotten lost here (I
> do not mean in her example, just the whole discussion the way it has
> developed).    If xhtml is supposed to be a replacement or follow-on to more
> or less replace html,  then its hyperlinks MUST BE SIMPLE TO UNDERSTAND AND
> USE.  Or at least, ordinary everyday hyperlinks must be.  Otherwise this new
> facility will not get used, or it will be used wrongly and sour the majority
> of web page developers on using it - back to html 4.0, at least it works and
> we can understand it.
...
> If we cannot get to a **really simple** syntax to express these notions, one
> that will be clear to most non-specialists and non-nerd html authors, we
> better forget it right now. 

Maybe, but maybe not.  The unfortunate fact is that the only people who 
get to choose which UI-oriented Web technologies people are exposed to 
is a small group of management and programmers in Redmond.  (The server 
side is different thank goodness).  If this group of godlike individuals 
had implemented extended links in the browser a couple of years ago, 
quite likely everybody would have said "that's cool, how did they do 
that?", done a 'view source'" and just started doing it.

Given the current power structure in our industry, all this talk on 
xml-dev about what people might and might not learn pretty well remains 
theorizing in absence of evidence. -Tim

• Follow-Ups:
  • RE: [Fwd: The problems with Xlink for integration langu ages]
    • From: "Didier PH Martin" <martind@n...>

• References:
  • Re: [Fwd: The problems with Xlink for integration langu ages]
    • From: Uche Ogbuji <uche.ogbuji@f...>
  • Re: [Fwd: The problems with Xlink for integration langu ages]
    • From: Jeni Tennison <jeni@j...>
  • Re: [Fwd: The problems with Xlink for integration langu ages]
    • From: "Thomas B. Passin" <tpassin@c...>

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