"Clean Specs"

[James Robertson]

At 01:19 8/02/1999 , Paul Prescod wrote:

  | What is a "clean spec?"
  | 
  | People in this discussion are mixing together a variety of things that I
  | do not consider the same.
  | 
  | Uche Ogbuji wrote:
  | > I have worked on teams implementing DOM, XSL and parts of XLL.  Some
users
  | > might grant that we have been "succeeding", but let me assure you
that if so,
  | > it is despite the W3C specs, not because of them.  DOM, especially is
  | > unforgivably inconsistent, incomplete, and unclear for a production-ready
  | > (1.0) specification.
  | 
  | There is not a SINGLE person on this mailing list that would say that it
  | is right to create specifcations that are inconsistent, incomplete or
  | unclear. It is beyond doubt that specifications in the XML family,
  | including XML itself, have these problems. The question is how to avoid
  | that?

Well, has anyone considered employing real, professional technical
authors to write the specifications?

Instead of (I presume) the progenitors of the ideas.

I mean, the inventors of a standard are gurus in their technical
area, but rarely would they have professional skills in communication
and education ...

So I say we ask some real experts ... in writing.

Cheers,

J


-------------------------
James Robertson
Step Two Designs Pty Ltd
SGML, XML & HTML Consultancy
http://www.steptwo.com.au/
jamesr at steptwo.com.au

"Beyond the Idea"
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