Re: Basic ietf process question ...

[Mark Nottingham <[e-mail]>]

On 03/08/2012, at 5:59 PM, Ned Freed <[e-mail]> wrote:

>> Specifically, it's very common for people to try to use schema to inform
>> "binding" tools into specific languages. However, the underlying metamodel of
>> XML, the Infoset, is both complex and a poor fit for most languages, so
>> bindings take "shortcuts" and expose a profile of XML's range of expression,
>> encouraging some patterns of use, while discouraging (or disallowing) others.
>> Since the bindings often make different decisions (based upon the language of
>> use), interoperability is difficult (sometimes, impossible).
> 
> It very much depends on what you're doing and how you're doing it. If what
> you want is for your data to manifest directly as a data structure, XML is
> a lousy fit for that for a bunch of different reasons. Json is the clear choice
> in such cases. But there are other uses where the more complex Infoset of
> XML can be an asset.

Very much; when it becomes a "document" (e.g., mixed markup), XML is a much better choice.

> 
> Really, it's all about how you use the available tools.
> 
>> Furthermore, designing a schema that is extensible is incredibly convoluted
>> in XML Schema 1.0. Schema 1.1 was designed to address this failure, but it
>> hasn't been broadly adopted; most people I know in the field consider it a
>> failure.
> 
> Yes, XML Schema makes this a lot harder to do than it should be, but in a lot
> of designs I've seen it also has to do with how XML is actually used. A bad
> design is a bad design, regardless of what schema language you use.
> 
>> What surprises me and many others is that people are still using it and
>> promoting it, when it's well-understood by almost EVERYONE who was involved in
>> using XML for protocols in the past ten years agrees that it's a mistake.
> 
> See above. I certainly wouldn't use XML Schema for anything new, but there's
> a lot of legacy stuff out there.

That's the rub, isn't it?

--
Mark Nottingham
http://www.mnot.net/