Re: [xsl] The Perils of Sudden Type-Safety in XPath 2.0

["Kurt Cagle" <cagle@xxxxxxxxx>]

XSD is being driven principally by Microsoft, because it is a critical first
stage to Post Schema Validated Infosets (PSVI), which in turn is a way to
deal with XML as binary objects. X# is on the horizon, and it will likely be
the next logical stage of that - loading an XML entity will create a
data-aware class that can be treated as a first class citizen in a binary
format (and which can also conveniently get away from all of those pesky
openness requirements that XML in its current form exposes). I've worked
with XPath for the last five years (counting the time very early on when it
was a very different looking animal), and I think I've run into maybe three
times in that period where having type-casting would have made things
easier, and that principally because XSL lacked certain pieces which are
finally coming into play in XSLT 2. When you add type you increase the
complexity of the applications with relatively little beneft, UNLESS you are
looking for ways to build a bundled data-aware object. In other words, the
principal driving requirements for PSVI can be traced back to trying to turn
XML into an OOP object. This can certainly be done, but at the cost of
losing much of the flexibility that makes XML so useful.

-- Kurt


----- Original Message -----
From: "bryan" <bry@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2003 1:22 AM
Subject: RE: [xsl] The Perils of Sudden Type-Safety in XPath 2.0


>
>
> > I understand that it can be useful or
> >necessary to validate against some schema, but I think the whole
> >utility of DTD and Schema for everyday business has long been
> >very much overstated. ... just a soapbox issue of mine.
>
> I agree a 100%, indeed if you were to read various posts of mine about
> XSDL you would no doubt begin to envision as someone with a fairly loose
> grip on sanity, continually foaming at the mouth and raving that the end
> times are nigh. Curiously enough this is how my co-workers see me nearly
> every day.
>
> The problem that makes me so pessimistic is that because of the
> overstating of business use many projects, governmental and corporate,
> are coming along where XSDL usage is mandated. It is this which will
> cause the ugly hacks I discussed earlier.
>
>
>  XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list
>
>


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