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RE: Typing and paranoia

• To: 'Mike Champion' <mc@x...>
• Subject: RE: Typing and paranoia
• From: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...>
• Date: Fri, 6 Dec 2002 08:19:13 -0600
• Cc: XML Dev <xml-dev@l...>

The "essence"?  Disapprovingly?  No.  I 
simply don't like to see the clarity of 
the XML 1.0 specification muddied by attempts 
to use XML as a brand name for platforms. 
That's retrograde.

1.  XML is a syntax defined by its BNF in the 
XML 1.0 specification.

2.  XML platforms are software whose definition 
depending on the specifications used, can be 
both non-standard and unreliable.  I said "can be".

3.  XML application languages are defined in 
terms of the XML 1.0 specification or other 
languages derived from it such as XML Schema. 
These languages may have platform data models.

4.  XML The Brand Name is a term some are 
making up to conflate platforms and XML.  This 
is confusing and wreaks havoc in the non-expert 
understanding of XML.

5.  Interoperability is a property of platforms, 
not specifications or standards.   Depending on 
the means chosen to interact with a platform 
and to move information among platforms, interoperability 
reliability varies by combinations of platforms.  Experience 
shows the most reliable means is to rely on the 
syntax of the XML 1.0 specification.   This is 
not to say that other means cannot be reliable 
but this varies by combination of particular 
platforms and application language data models.

I don't disapprove of the infoset.  I do understand 
the data model approach to platforms and their 
implementation of application languages.  But these 
are not XML.  XML is a syntax specification. It 
is not a brand name.  Going down that path opens 
the door to closed system vendor dominated transactions 
and systems.   The markup community has worked for 
too many years to break the logjam of homogeneous 
systems design to stand idly and watch this progress 
lost to fuzzy marketing terminology.  This I have 
to fight.

len


From: Mike Champion [mailto:mc@x...]

As Martin Gudgin says in the piece that Len quoted (disapprovingly?) 

My objective is very much like Tim's -- to maximize the value of the XML 
"brand name".  That requires careful consideration of what is of the essence.

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