Re: [xml-dev] [RFC] "Shlomi Fish’s FAQ - Why are you still using XML?"

Shlomi:

On 2022-05-17 5:47 a.m., Shlomi Fish wrote:
> hi all,
>
> seehttps://www.shlomifish.org/meta/FAQ/why_xml.xhtml  :
> …[snip]…
> what do you think?

I think that I am glad you articulated these reasons. They overlap with 
my reasons, and your words help me explain myself to my skeptics.

However, when you wrote this:

> Now, with respect to HTML 5, the Markdowns and AsciiDoc, while I use them
> sometimes, they are less structured and more errorprone than many XML grammars,
> and often are not semantic enough for all my use cases.

… my first reaction was, are you using an XML-aware editor to do your 
data entry?  Because one source of pushback against XML languages and in 
favour of markdowns and AsciiDoc, which I encounter in projects, is the 
assumption that we can only expect authors to use plain text editors, 
with no XML syntax support. And in a plain text editor, I think it 
genuinely is easier — /less/ errorprone — to author in a markdown 
language or in AsciiDoc.

Also, the complement to "less structured" is "less complex". I know one 
project where some doc maintainers are proposing switching away from the 
XML-based DocBook language, to AsciiDoc, because there are so many 
entities and "more structured" capabilities that it is complex to figure 
out for a casual contributor. These maintainers judge that it is better 
to have less structure but to be accessible to casual contributors of 
documentation improvements.

You might want to consider addressing these points in your essay.

I hope this is the kind of helpful feedback you are looking for.

Best regards,
       —Jim DeLaHunt

-- 

.   --Jim DeLaHunt,[email protected]      http://blog.jdlh.com/  (http://jdlh.com/)
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