Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Cliff Notes (was Confused about the working group)

Author:David McCusker
Posted:9/14/2000; 12:20:12 PM
Topic:scriptingNews outline for 9/14/2000
Msg #:21326 (In response to 21314)
Prev/Next:21325 / 21327

(As an aside, I have no problems with Tim Berners-Lee. He seems a smart guy from what I've seen in his explanation of why side effects from an HTTP Get operation are a bad idea. I like this much math savvy. Anyway, I have no intention to make him sound stupid.)

Here's a radical reduction of the XML Protocol Charter (http://www.w3.org/2000/09/XML-Protocol-Charter.html) to a ridiculously threadbare set of terms. Since this reduction is on a section by section basis, it tends to lose all context from interconnections in the text. I aim to keep a hundredth part of the original, but it's hard to cut that much.

This reduction only intends to be interesting, and to stimulate thought after seeing how inadequately this brief version actually represents the whole charter. This kind of approach can be useful, but sometimes is not. The trick is to avoid losing something crucial in the extreme paring away of extra detail.

1. Scope

Value: Inter agent comms enhance web apps.

Focus: sync and async XML over existing transports.

Parts: envelope, conventions, serialization, HTTP

Goals: agnostic, simple, modular, extensible

1.1 Simplicity

Simplicity is big but relative. Modularity and layering help.

Less is more, but compatibility will impact simplicity.

1.2 Evolvability

Orthogonal extension is tricky.

1.3 Intermediaries

Language must support composition.

1.4 Representation

Other models besides XML and RDF need serialization without penalty. They change, so orthogonality must be maximized for freedom.

2. Out of Scope

"XML Protocol" is too broad, so we downplay some things.

2.1 Binary Data

Ignore binary format languages.

2.2 Compression

Size is no priority.

2.3 Transport

Ignore (new?) transports scaling better than HTTP.

2.4 Apps

Avoid app semantic targets.

2.5 Metadata

Metainfo looks like other content and is not privileged.

3. Schedule

One or two month sized steps.

4. Relations

Internal: coordinate with XML, RDF, and HTTP work.

External: return calls from IETF, ebXML, and RosettaNet.

5. Members

Official inhouse nominees and chair invited experts.

5.1 Email

Mailing list.

5.2 Web

Public home page.

5.4 Flesh

Closed door.

5.5 Resources

Dirty dozen.

5.6 W3C

Loaner.

5.7 IP

Share dammit.




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