Re: [xml-dev] Limericks, Stupidity, and Reality (was Re:[xml-dev] [ANN] XML Limerick Competition)

Mike Champion scripsit:

> Is it REALLY going to be easier for inhabitants of 
> the Real World to develop useful declarative schemas 
> than useful procedural code?   Educate me!

IMHO (and I really mean MO), the chief advantage of declarative
code is that it's not procedural, and therefore provides a
cross-check.  Whatever passes both a ruleset and hand-tailored
code has a good chance of being correct, because although both
of these need to be created by programmers (roughly defined as
people who are capable of giving rigorous directions to intelligent
morons, i.e. computers), and therefore are subject to error,
the *kinds* of errors that people make writing each kind of code
tend to be very different.

-- 
John Cowan           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              
Please leave your values        |       Check your assumptions.  In fact,
   at the front desk.           |          check your assumptions at the door.
     --sign in Paris hotel      |            --Miles Vorkosigan