XSL Debate, Leventhal responds to Stephen Deach

[Simon St.Laurent]

At 09:10 PM 6/9/99 -0400, Jonathan Borden wrote:
>I have a right to use and develop systems using XSL. You are arguing against
>my freedom to develop systems using the standard of my choice.

Rights?  Are you kidding?  In standards you have no rights, except maybe
the right to complain.  You still have plenty of freedom to develop systems
- it just may not be the 'standard' of your choice.

Like it or not, if Tim Berners-Lee decides he doesn't like XSL (seems
unlikely but possible to me), it won't become a W3C recommendation.
Period.  XSL will probably just move someplace else, but the 'standard' of
your choice will have to come from another body.  (And yes, I know the W3C
isn't technically a 'standards' body in the IS0 sense.)

W3C process may suck, but it hardly means that you have rights.  

This is almost as irritating as those people who go on about Microsoft's
'right to innovate'.


Simon St.Laurent
XML: A Primer / Building XML Applications
Inside XML DTDs: Scientific and Technical (July)
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http://www.simonstl.com

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