On Thu, May 7, 2009 at 2:42 PM, Sam Johnston <span dir="ltr">&lt;<a href="mailto:samj@samj.net">samj@samj.net</a>&gt;</span> wrote:<br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Ben,<br>
<br>
An unimplementable specification is as useless as teats on a bull... I<br>
do think it&#39;s important that we bear the developers in mind where<br>
possible as if it&#39;s easy to develop for it&#39;s more likely to be used<br>
extensively.</blockquote><div><br>I agree, yet don&#39;t understand how it applies to anything I&#39;ve said.  Are you really suggesting that using JSON would result in a specification that is &quot;unimplementable&quot;? <br>
</div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
I&#39;m going to assume you know what atom looks like up close and<br>
personal as I&#39;m confined to an iPhone for now so my demoing ability is<br>
limited... if we leave the content element well alone then it is no<br>
more complicated than any XML based domain specific language we would<br>
create, especially if we keep it flat and/or limit ourselves to what<br>
is possible in text and json. </blockquote><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br>
Further, these alternative transforms need be nothing more than<br>
convenience formats for writing shell scripts and web interfaces... </blockquote><div><br>And we end up right back in the space I described in an earlier email: either we force all implementations to implement all formats or we guarantee the production of incompatible, fully compliant implementations.  Riding the fence just produces a sore bottom.  Make a choice.<br>
 </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br>
and by providing ready made transforms they need be no more work for<br>
implementors. If an implementor wants to render direct to PDF for<br>
reporting then so be it. If they choose not to provide this extra<br>
functionality then let the market decide. So long as we focus on one<br>
primary format we&#39;re fine.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
Sam<br>
</font><div><div></div></div></blockquote><div><br>&quot;If we don&#39;t do all the complex stuff for which XML-based systems are notorious, we&#39;ll be fine&quot;.  There is a first time for everything.  I&#39;m not going to hold my breath, though.<br>
<br><br>Ben<br><br> </div></div>