[Gllug] Getting Linux to work with Freeserve (Wanadoo) Broadband

[Bruce Richardson]

On Tue, Jul 06, 2004 at 05:51:20AM +0100, Peter wrote:
>    While the theory is good the practice is something else. hence why 
> html has drifted from is original well formed standard.

HTML was a bit of a hack to begin with.  The mess that it became has as
much to do with browser wars and poorly written WYSIWYG html editors as
anything else.

> XML would be 
> fine if it did not put so many rules round it and require every one to 
> follow them complexly.

Most of the complexity with XML is in the design of DTDs and
stylesheets.  If you are simply using an existing DTD then writing an
XML document is actually even simpler than writing an HTML one because
the rules are more consistent and aren't riddled with exceptions.  All
you really have to remember is that

	1.  Case is important in XML tags, so stick to all lower case or
	all upper case to make your life simple.
	2.  Tags must not overlap.
	3.  All tags must be closed.
	4.  Always quote attributes.
	5.  Name the DTD you are working with.

That's all you need to know for most XML work.  It really is not hard.

> look at all the extra stuff in Jabber and you will start to understand, 
> its the doc types that do not help! I mean this document says absolutely 
> nothing an yet it has about 60 chars of padding!
> 
> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

As soon as you put any data into that document then the padding becomes
insignificant.

Do we have to start listing all the advantages of XML, here?  Have
people really not got the point on this one?

-- 
Bruce

I unfortunately do not know how to turn cheese into gold.
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 261 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <http://mailman.lug.org.uk/pipermail/gllug/attachments/20040706/2dd2ffb1/attachment.pgp>
-------------- next part --------------
-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug