Wish lists for the Holidays

[schnitz at overflow.de]

> At 04:31 PM 12/24/99 -0800, Don Park wrote:
> >Atomic XML standards are one page specs each of which defines
> >a single 'power word', a tag name or an attribute name.  An
> >example is 'xmlns' or 'table'.
> >
> >Molecular XML standards are small specs each of which defines
> >a single 'power phrase', a micro-schema involving just a few
> >elements.  An example is 'address' molecule that consists of
> >small number of elements that make up an address.
> >
> >These 'micro-standards' will allow us to create a more coherent
> >XML document standards as well as XML software that can 'learn'
> >to handle new standards by plugging in new power words or phrases.
> 
> This is beautiful!  I'd love to see more projects that assemble smaller
> pieces, rather than trying to create anew within gigantic frameworks.

Fortunately, we won't have to wait too long to see this happen. 
At least for the world of XHTML, this is already happening. It is exactly 
this kind of thinking that led to the Modularization of XHTML. A "molecule" is 
here called "module" consisting of a small, atomic logical entity like a 
single tag or a set of inter-related tags, together with a micro-DTD 
and later with a micro-schema. The "table" module is already there!

Everyone can create new modules, and all the modules can be combined 
like plug and play to create custom document types tailored to the 
specific needs of an individual, community or industry.

Regards,

Sebastian Schnitzenbaumer

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