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Re: Please stop writing specifications that cannot beparsed/p

• From: Norm Tovey-Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>
• To: Debbie Lapeyre <dalapeyre@mulberrytech.com>
• Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2023 17:38:58 +0100

Debbie Lapeyre <dalapeyre@mulberrytech.com> writes:
> After working for 3 or 4 weeks, she would complain that the spec was
> ambiguous and give up. (Note I'm not saying that the spec WAS
> ambiguous, let's not start that religious war, just that it seemed so
> to many of us.

I don’t know about the text of 8879 per se, let alone the early drafts,
but I give the SGML Handbook high marks as a reference. Back when my
copy was well worn and dogeared, I don’t recall ever trying to resolve
an issue and not finding a precise answer in there somewhere. I may have
cursed *a lot* about how long it sometimes took to find, but looking
back thirty years, they were always there.

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

--
Norm Tovey-Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>
https://norm.tovey-walsh.com/

> Nothing hath an uglier look to us than reason, when it is not on our
> own side.--Marquess of Halifax

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• References:
  • Re: Please stop writing specifications that cannot beparsed/processed by software
    • From: "C. M. Sperberg-McQueen" <cmsmcq@blackmesatech.com>
  • Re: Please stop writing specifications that cannot be parsed/processed by software
    • From: Marcus Reichardt <u123724@gmail.com>
  • Re: Please stop writing specifications that cannot beparsed/processed by software
    • From: "C. M. Sperberg-McQueen" <cmsmcq@blackmesatech.com>
  • Re: Please stop writing specifications that cannot beparsed/processed by software
    • From: Debbie Lapeyre <dalapeyre@mulberrytech.com>