Re: XSL with scripting

[Ray Cromwell <ray@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Users ceded control of their standards from organizations they could
> control -- such as the IETF and ISO -- to organizations that they could
> not -- such as the W3C. Users confer legitimacy just on standards
> organizations just as they do on governments. Presumably, they trust these
> organizations.

  It doesn't really work like that. It is developers and corporations
who confer legitimacy to standards. If neither Microsoft nor Netscape
implemented CSS, it would be dead. The fact that they created broken
implementations is responsible for CSS's lack of use today.

  End users do not download browsers because of standards listed in the
marketing sheets. Web developers might, but not end users. My mother
doesn't care that WebTV doesn't support Java. After developer mindshare
creates an imperative for the feature, then the end users will care.

  Call me ignorant, but it seems to me that standards get created by
two kinds of people: "Those who ship code" and "Those who have money"

The IETF is an example of "Those who ship code" So is the open source
movement. So is SAX. For example, the new window manager spec for
GNOME and KDE desktops on Linux. No committee, no debate. Just release
early, release often, until it works and everyone likes it. With the
IETF, in the old days, some standards were created the moment a
working implementation left the developers hands.

I think the W3C is an example of "Those who have money" (including
Academics @ big schools) Engineers at a company submit a spec. The
company hopes the new standard/proposal will somehow get them good
press (to be seen as a market leader) For example, webMethods,
DataChannel, etc follow textbook venture capital marketing gimmicks
which is to build incredible hype around something mundane, to be seen
as a "Leader" in this here-to-fore-unknown market category. If the
proposal makes it to a recommendation, you end up with the controlling
company having the most complete implementation, and others either
dropping support, or somehow being different.

Just look at the SMIL mess. Microsoft dropped support after they couldn't
beat RealNetworks to market with a player, and because being seen as
a "follower" of a standard of a competitor isn't as good as being
seen as the "leader"

Microsoft seems gungho about XSL, but Netscape doesn't. Hmm,
I wonder why?

-Ray "the leader in the XSL discussion market, which according to 
Gartner Group will be worth $2 billion by 2001. With our new XSL-DISC DTD,
a W3C proposal, and auto-reply application server, we are delivering....."






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