Re: [docbook] DocBook Technical Committee Meeting Minutes: 18 Mar2003

[Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>]

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/ Dave Pawson <dpawson@nildram.co.uk> was heard to say:
| At 14:18 18/03/2003 -0500, Norman Walsh wrote:
|
|>Norm argues that the mental transition from XHTML to CALS is
|>significant and a body of users would find DocBook easier to learn if
|>they didn't have to make that transition.
|
| Perhaps if the CALS model / structure were explained fully
| a transition would become easier for users?

It would become easier, but it would still require mental gymnastics
that are hard to justify.

Once upon a time, there were CALS tables and everyone understood them.

Along came HTML. Despite aggressive lobbying by just about everyone I
know who was around at the time to make the HTML model a subset of CALS
or at least compatible with CALS, that's not what was designed.

Now there are HTML tables and everyone understands them. The ratio of
CALS users to HTML users must be approaching zero by this point.

As a consequence, other schemas are now adopting HTML tables instead
of CALS. For example, the IDEAlliance DTD for the XML conferences now
uses HTML instead of CALS.

If we were starting over, I don't think any convincing argument could
be made for adopting CALS in favor of HTML.

The question is, should we be flexible and allow HTML tables in
DocBook so that users migrating to DocBook don't have to do any mental
gymnastics to get their tables working?

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

- -- 
Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>      | We have fewer friends than we
http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/ | imagine, but more than we
Chair, DocBook Technical Committee | know.--Hugo Von Hofmannsthal
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