Re: [jats-list] 4. The reason(s) you think JATS works

["Denise French dfrenchlibrary@xxxxxxxxx" <jats-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mr. Schwartzman wrote:

3) Finally, the built-in customization design principle making it easy
to create a tag subset or a tag superset was absolutely brilliant. I
find the whole Swiftian Big-Endian/Little-Endian controversy about
Greenification of Blue, JATS Lite, etc. quite amusing -- one can
always create a subset that suits one's need.

Don't sneer at people, it's rude. And you are missing the point of
agreed-upon tag sets. It is FAR easier to get a community to agree to all
use something standard than to write a custom anything and get many people
to use it. The minute you suggest agreeing on a customization everyone
wants to change it a bit more, or to have an exception for their
convenience, and you don't have interchange any more. THAT'S why we need
JATS to be a standard in the first place.



On Wed, Apr 29, 2020 at 8:29 PM Alexander Schwarzman aschwarzman@xxxxxxxxx <
jats-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> To add to what's already been mentioned...
> 1) It seems to me, one of the less appreciated and apparent reasons
> that JATS works (or, in my opinion, is more successful than, let's
> say, TEI or DOCBOOK) is that in the STEM community, compared to the
> Social Sciences' or Humanities' communities, there have been (a) more
> consensus and (b) more support/accountability from funders .
>
> 2) Another -- more technical -- reason for JATS success is that it is
> seamlessly compatible with many technologies; most importantly, with
> the XML family of technologies, i.e., XSLT, Schematron, and XQuery.
>
> 3) Finally, the built-in customization design principle making it easy
> to create a tag subset or a tag superset was absolutely brilliant. I
> find the whole Swiftian Big-Endian/Little-Endian controversy about
> Greenification of Blue, JATS Lite, etc. quite amusing -- one can
> always create a subset that suits one's need.
>
> --Sasha
>
> Alexander ('Sasha') Schwarzman, Content Technology Architect
> phone: +1.202.416.1979 | e-mail: aschwarzman@xxxxxxx
> The Optical Society (OSA)
> 2010 Massachusetts Ave., NW
> Washington, DC 20036 USA
> www.osa.org