Bowerbird wrote:
but if anyone thinks he makes a good point, just reiterate it, and i'll be happy to address it.
Marcello makes a lot of good points, because he's actually making working processes, understands the need to follow accepted standards, and strives for a good product. Certainly he and I have disagreed on a few matters, as is the norm between any two people, but I respect what he is doing, and he's doing all this voluntarily and, most importantly, transparently (in the open.) On the other hand, it is harder for me to try to respect what you are doing because of your refusal to work *with* others in an open manner. Not only is it perceived to be anti-social (PG and DP are based on volunteerism requiring people to get along), but it is self-defeating. I think your ZML is a great attempt at trying to normalize plain texts. Since plain texts appear to still be important in the PG philosophy (even if they will be auto-generated from XML in the future), it makes great sense for the plain texts to be normalized to a single standard that defines the major content structures (this will benefit users of the plain text documents, including for accessibility purposes.)
i've noticed in the past when i've said this that few people ever restate his points, so i take that to mean y'all are weary of this constant conflict.
meanwhile, i'll deliver pudding that proves itself...
I don't think PG just wants pudding -- they want the recipe, the ingredients list, so the recipe can be changed and improved as new needs arise and better ways to do things are dreamed up. PG is NOT the customer buying the food, they are owners of the restaurant, and they have to plan for the future and the needs of its customers. This means: 1) The ZML spec *fully* described and released as a fully open standard, and 2) The code to your various programs published to the group, under an open source agreement. If you don't do both, I don't think you can convince those doing the heavy-duty work of PG (and DP) to embrace your system *even if* your pudding tastes great. PG and DP, by their nature, are volunteer-driven systems that thrive on transparency and cooperation -- this means the use of open standards wherever possible, to fulfill the important requirements of standards conformance and accessibility, and that all code, scripts, etc. are open sourced to the group for maintenance and improvement. It's your choice. Jon