[Zope] The new DTML syntax

[Alexander Staubo]

>From: Paul Everitt [mailto:Paul@digicool.com]
>Sent: 6. august 1999 18:15
>To: Zope Mailing List (E-mail)
>Subject: RE: [Zope] The new DTML syntax

>
>Alexander wrote:
>> natural languages, "dtml-if" isn't a word; it's two words; we 
>> learn, by
>> convention, to split such hyphenated constructs into separate 
>> words. Our
>> mind works best with individual words. Why go against the grain and
>> teach the brain a new thing?
>
>Unfortunately you're going against the grain of HTML on this one.  From
>the W3C statement on XHTML, which is the declared future for HTML:
[snip]
>
>Thus, polluting the HTML namespace with custom DTML tags is against the
>grain.  The prepended "dtml-" imitates the XHTML mechanism of 
>specifying
>namespaces.

Erhm. You _are_ polluting the HTML namespace, Paul. The "dtml-" prefix
is in no way XML-compliant. It isn't even "almost" compliant. Just
adding a hyphen does not make it cleaner.

>Please feel free to explain to the W3C that their concept of
>modularization goes against the way the brain works, and that one big
>global namespace is the right thing to do.

I happen to agree with the W3C, although I concede that the "only one
namespace at a time" rule isn't particularly good on the fingertips. It
means that -- at least, if I got this right -- once we go for XML
namespaces to distinguish DTML elements, we'll either be using a dtml:
prefix or an html: prefix, depending on much typing we'll be inclined to
do. Either that, or specifying the whole namespace URI for every tag.
(Not bloody likely.)

>> I'm not surprised that DC dominates the negatively-charged end of the
>
>Please explain the "not surprised".  Do you feel in some way that we've
>followed a pattern of being closed-minded?

With all respect, I wasn't talking about closed-mindedness, rather about
conservativeness, and Christopher's Petrilli comment about it being too
late to make any changes. As Jeff Bauer points out, even open-source
development isn't really democratic.

>Do others in the community feel that we've been stifling input?

(Note that I didn't say you were stifling input. There's a huge
difference between stifling input, and ignoring it. ;)

[...]
>In summary, you've brought up a number of interesting and valid points,
>as have many others in this thread on both sides of the 
>argument.  Sound
>judgement is the art of sorting through both the reasoned as 
>well as the
>confrontational arguments and making the best decision.

Define "confrontational arguments". :)

>--Paul
>
>Paul Everitt       Digital Creations
>paul@digicool.com  540.371.6909
>-----------------------------------------
>The Open Source Zope application server
>http://www.zope.org/

-- 
Alexander Staubo             http://www.mop.no/~alex/
"Elvis skipped around the car and threw open the trunk.
'Hoopla!' he was heard to say, 'This is a 7.62mm M134 General
Electric Minigun. Up to 6,000 rounds per minute. 7.62mm X 51 shells.
1.36kg recoil adaptors. Six muzzle velocity of 869m/s.'
'Oh,' said Rex, 'So that's what it is.'"
--Robert Rankin, _They Came And Ate Us: Armageddon 2: The B-Movie_