RFD: comp.text.xml

[Peter Murray-Rust]

[reply to xml-dev only - I'm sure JamesT will read this].
At 21:34 02/05/98 +0800, James K. Tauber wrote:
>                     REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
>                   unmoderated group comp.text.xml
>
>This is a formal Request For Discussion (RFD) for the creation of a
>comp.text.xml newsgroup.  This is not a Call for Votes (CFV);
>you cannot vote at this time.  Procedural details are below.

I am deliberately neutral about this - this message is simply to state how
I see XML-DEV's position w.r.t. the propose comp.text.xml
[...]

>A newsgroup for the discussion of the Extensible Markup
>Language (XML); including, but not limited to the specifications
>and syntax, document creation and editing, interchange, software,
>processing and database integration. This applies not only to XML
>itself but also the Extensible Linking Language (XLL), the Extensible
>Style Language (XSL), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) as applied to XML
>documents, and to document types and applications of XML.

XML-DEV has had and continues to have robust and IMO valuable discussion in
these areas.

>
>Justification
>
>XML is a new language, and it appears that it will be extremely
>popular.
>
>Over the past few months, traffic on the XML-DEV and XML-L mailing lists has
>grown rapidly.  With the release of the W3C Recommendation for XML 1.0,
>developer interest is growing rapidly and an increasing amount of software
>is
>being released.  A newsgroup would make it much easier for a wider audience
>to participate in and benefit from these discussions.

I will leave Henry to answer whether there are any current problems of
scale. [I would hate to promise his services without checking :-)]

>
[...]
>
>
>Policy on Advertising
>
>We encourage discussion of the merits and shortcomings of
>commercial products. A certain amount of advertising (both objective
>and advocative) is to be expected and this is to be encouraged as
>long as the products and services relate directly to XML and the
>announcements are brief. Company representatives are expected to
>participate in discussions of their product that they themselves did
>not initiate.

There has never been the slightest hint of abuse of this on XML-DEV and for
this I thank the XML community. We aren't yet at the stage where there are
a large number of XML products in common use, so haven't got to the 'I
bought XML-FOO last week and when I try to run DUCKBOOK under it it ...'. 
>

So far there have also been very few 'What is a DDT?' 'Where do I find the
< and > on my keyboard?'. Peter Flynn and Robin Cover (and many others)
must take great credit for providing answers to every conceivable question.
Since I have asked these sort of Qs on comp.text.sgml 3 years ago, I expect
that there needs to be a similar place for XML. XML-DEV isn't appropriate
for large volumes of such Qs. I'm neutral whether it should be on
comp.text.xml, comp.text.sgml or XML-L.

	P.

Peter Murray-Rust, Director Virtual School of Molecular Sciences, domestic
net connection
VSMS http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/vsms, Virtual Hyperglossary
http://www.venus.co.uk/vhg

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