Re: On XML and $EDITORs (Re: Things that used to be clear (was ...)) "Living Documents") side meeting at IETF105.)

Keith Moore <moore@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> · Wed, 10 Jul 2019 12:52:16 -0400



    On 7/10/19 12:31 PM, Nico Williams wrote:

    
        would be nice if there were a standard format we could use, but I

      
      XML is standard;

    
    Ah.  That explains why every time I try to write a new RFC, the
      required format has changed in an incompatible way.
    Presuming that XML is good for something, I'm not actually sure
      what it is.   It's not good for user input.    It's not a good
      final-form document format.  It's not good as an intermediate
      format for WYSIWYG editors.   Apparently it's not good at being a
      long-term stable intermediate format either (though perhaps it
      could be if people just accepted that it's going to be ugly and
      resisted the temptation to make it prettier.)
    I suppose it's good at being able to be translated into other
      formats that are equally bad or worse.  Progress?

    
    Keith