Re: Background on DSSSL

Subject: Re: Background on DSSSL
From: Sharon Adler <sca@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 14:16:21 -0400
Ralph, 

You have several errors in your background discussion of DSSSL both just on
DSSSL itself and on the relation and timing of the work with HyTime.

Thanks.

Sharon



At 11:42 AM 6/23/99 -0400, Ralph Ferris wrote:
>Hi All,
>
>I'm encouraged by the response generated by my message "Scheme Programming
>Reference." It is clear that there's an agreed need for better
>documentation and some good ideas for what form that documentation should
>take. I'll add some observations of my own in another message. In this
>message, I'll reply to Paul Tyson's question (Wed, 23 Jun 1999):
>
>> is there any chance someone can collect information from members of the
>> ISO working group that created DSSSL?  This, together with minutes and
>> records of the working group, would provide some fascinating background.
>
>Be advised that key members of the ISO DSSSL WG are now in that same role
>in the W3C XSL WG. Since these folks chose to abandon their first child in
>the woods, their cooperation in providing background for this list isn't
>likely to be forthcoming. I can, however, provide a few details myself:
>
>- The first draft of DSSSL was written several years ago by Paula
>Angerstein. That effort went on for maybe three years. I myself attended
>presentations on this first version given by Sharon Adler and Anders
>Berglund in the early (19)90s. These came with the caveat that "everything
>was subject to change." They had that right.
>
>- The early version was eventually abandoned, Paula left and James Clark
>joined the project. (Which came first and whether this was cause and effect
>is unknown to me. Someone else may be able to fill in this point.)
>
>- The "new" DSSSL that emerged defined, among other things, its own query
>language. This created a problem with the HyTime WG, as HyTime already had
>a query language of its own: HyQ. A war ensued that went on for quite a
>while, but ultimately the two sides came together.
>
>- The results of the cooperation between the DSSSL and HyTime work groups
>was a common query language: Standard Document Query Language - SDQL. More
>significant than the query language itself, though, was the recognition of
>the need for a common "data model" that both DSSSL and HyTime could operate
>on. The outcome was the SGML Property Set, which was added to the DSSSL
>standard. 
>
>- HyTime itself required an additional property set, built on top of the
>SGML Property Set. This work took at very long time to complete. In the
>process though, the very important concept of groves was developed. That
>concept too was folded back into DSSSL.
>
>The next step would have been to go further with DSSSL/HyTime
>"cooperation", addressing in particular the - still much discussed -
>question of what is specified in a "style" sheet vs what information comes
>from the DTD and the "architecture" on which the DTD may be based. 
>
>We had reached this point in late 1996, when I showed "HyBrick" for the
>first time at the ISO meeting that preceded SGML '96. Of course, SGML '96
>is where the organization of the XML effort was first announced publically
...
>
>
>Best regards,
> 
>Ralph E. Ferris
>HyBrick Program Manager
>Fujitsu Software Corporation
>HyBrick: http://www.fsc.fujitsu.com/hybrick/
>
>
>
> DSSSList info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/dsssl/dssslist
>


 DSSSList info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/dsssl/dssslist


Current Thread