[microformats-discuss] Re: Educationg Others

[Ryan King]

On Oct 3, 2005, at 3:15 PM, Scott Anderson wrote:
> On 10/3/05, Joe Gregorio <joe.gregorio at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Scott,
>>
>> I asked:
>>
>>>> What do you see in XHTML that makes you think that you
>>>> can't reuse it in ""other layers of my web application as well as
>>>> within XML content
>>>> repositories, various XML descriptors, SOAP messages, Atom  
>>>> feeds, etc."" ?
>>
>> You answered:
>>
>>> For my needs it makes no sense to persist these complex portal
>>> documents in my content respository when only a small fraction of  
>>> the
>>> markup is viable and reusable. It makes much better sense to keep  
>>> the
>>> data content separate from the presentation content so I can
>>> effectively present the same content in many different ways.
>>
>> You don't seem to be looking for answers but appear to be
>> trying to stake out a position.
>
> I am looking for answers on what standardized content formats to use
> in my software and how best to make use of them for my particular
> requirements. I am not advocating that anyone do what I am doing or
> that what anyone else is doing is wrong. The only position I am taking
> is that a technology or format is bound to become increasingly complex
> and less usable the more you attempt to reuse it to solve disparate
> problems.

If you're saying: "Don't use that, because if you keep using if for  
different stuff, it'll get complex."

Then I think that statement can apply to any technology.

> I see microformats usefulness being constrained by portability issues
> relating to it being tied so closely to XHTML syntax and context.

And which issues would those be?

> I
> also believe that a lack of common design patterns within microformats
> will make it harder for developers to adopt and support it.

We don't have common design patterns?

> If
> microformats are successful I will support them. As it is, I need to
> be convinced that there is a potential tipping point on the horizon
> before I make an investment. I don't see it yet.

I'll speed up the time machine, then.

> I realize that most people on this list are not facing the
> requirements that I am and are not interested in providing the type of
> solutions that I am interested in developing.

Of course, we have *no idea* what "solutions" you're providing. Nor  
you, us.

> I can also understand
> that my criticisms may not be relevant to what others are doing.
> Basically, I don't want to have to support two different XML formats
> that describe the same data.

I don't think anyone *wants* to do that.

> I am being told that the XHTML used in
> microformats is indeed portable. Has this been demonstrated to be
> true? I have a lot of doubts that the context is portable or the
> support requirements are trivial.

Portable? No idea what you mean here.

AFAIK, microformats can *go* anywhere xhtml can.

> If I do need to support a secondary format that gets used to generate
> microformats in my XHTML does anyone know of a good candidate for this
> besides RDF?

Wha?

-ryan
--
Ryan King
ryan at technorati.com