Stefan Tilkov's Random Stuff

Praise for XML Schema - NOT

Dare Obasanjo asks whether the W3C might become irrelevant. My favorite quote:

For example, W3C XML Schema was created by unifying the ideas behind DCD, DDML, SOX, and XDR. This has lead to a dysfunctional specification that is too complex for the simple scenarios and nigh impossible to use in defining complex XML vocabularies.

I find this pretty remarkable, coming from the Microsoft program manager responsible for XML schema technologies in the .NET Framework.

Comments

On July 18, 2004 6:39 AM, Don Box said:

I have to ask, do part do you find remarkable?

Also, do you agree with Dare’s assessment?

DB

On July 18, 2004 10:06 AM, Stefan Tilkov said:

Hi Don, I totally agree with Dare’s assessment — I find XML Schema extremely complex, and I’m not sure I see any technical reason why it has to be this way. RELAX NG seems a lot cleaner to me.

What I find remarkable is that a) this statement comes from somebody who very clearly knows his stuff, and should, if at all, be biased towards XSD, and b) that he writes something likes this at all — clearly something your PR people would throw fits over, given that Microsoft is perceived as one of the main XML Schema supporters.