[sc34wg3] Almost arbitrary markup in resourceData

[Murray Altheim]

Patrick Durusau wrote:
> Eric,
> 
> Freese, Eric D. (LNG-DAY) wrote:
> 
> <snip>
> 
>>I am speaking from the front lines of the user community, not the tool
>>vendor community, not the acedemic community.  I'm claiming my stake as part
>>of the target market - the people who want to make money using the tools and
>>standard as opposed to those implementing or studying.  
> 
> 
> Ouch! Or as Charley Brown would say, "He nicked me with a nyah!" ;-)
> 
> The academic community has suffered at the hands of standards bodies 
> that prefer texts that are dumbed down until they meet capricious limits 
> on parsing/processing. Well, the users in the academic community at any 
> rate.
> 
> I think Eric's point is well taken and the various parts of the topic 
> map standard need to take it into account. Standards that insure 
> information is interchangeable but that do not meet the needs of users 
> are interesting, but irrelevant.
> 
> As Eric and others have suggested, we are not faced with choosing either 
> interchange or usefulness. Both are possible in the topic maps standard, 
> but only if we show some imagination and ingenuity in devising a 
> solution that meets both requirements. To choose one without the other 
> is a recipe for failure.

Well, the sixth time is a charm:  would the XHTML+XTM DTD meet the
80/20 point? That's the question. Can we avoid arbitrary markup by
providing a specific hybrid that solves the problem for 80% of the
users who need extended abilities? As I've said, I'm even willing
to do that work if it means avoiding arbitrary markup in a standard,
which I will continue to maintain is a nonsequitor.

Murray

...........................................................................
Murray Altheim                         http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/murray/
Knowledge Media Institute
The Open University, Milton Keynes, Bucks, MK7 6AA, UK                    .

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