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<p><tt>Michael Keith <MICHAEL.KEITH@oracle.com> wrote on 12/23/2008 07:23:30 PM:<br>
> Learning a whole new way of writing XML is an ease of use issue.<br>
> If you don't know the rules then this new style of XML is definitely<br>
> confusing. <br>
> Is it a better way going forward? Probably, but if web beans is <br>
> being advertised <br>
> as a layer of services over existing Java EE technologies then one <br>
> would assume <br>
> that it will be specified in a way that is natural and easily <br>
> understood by the users <br>
> of those technologies. That "naturalness" is worth more than what is<br>
> gained by a <br>
> slightly improved XML style that is limited to one specific area. <br>
> <br>
> Of course, consistency can be achieved from either direction, and <br>
> the alternative to <br>
> web beans adopting the style of those technologies is for the <br>
> technologies to adopt <br>
> the web beans style of XML. As I mentioned, for that direction to <br>
> change there must <br>
> be a platform-level directive.<br>
</tt><br>
<tt>I agree with Mike.</tt><br>
<tt><br>
While I agree that the schema syntax of the DDs is a bit crufty, it</tt><br>
<tt>is what it is. It's one of the things I'd like to fix across the </tt><br>
<tt>platform at some point, but I don't think we could absorb it for</tt><br>
<tt>EE 6 unless the schedules get extended and given that a new schema</tt><br>
<tt>syntax doesn't really add much additional value, it's lower priority</tt><br>
<tt>than the other stuff that needs work. I think it will get fixed</tt><br>
<tt>eventually, but who knows exactly what it will look like.</tt><br>
<br>
<tt>In the meantime, consistency with the platform is the right thing</tt><br>
<tt>to do. It means that IDE developers don't have to split the way </tt><br>
<tt>they deal with EE artifacts. It means developers don't have to learn</tt><br>
<tt>multiple ways dealing with metadata that looks arbitrarily different</tt><br>
<tt>(that's just frustrating).</tt><br>
<br>
<tt>EE 6 is supposedly carrying on the Ease of use / development theme.</tt><br>
<tt>If we were starting from scratch and everything used the new schema</tt><br>
<tt>style, then it might be simpler, but I just can't see this being</tt><br>
<tt>simple when integrated with the rest of the platform. Right now,</tt><br>
<tt>it's just different and arbitrarily different means more complex</tt><br>
<tt>than it should be when we look at the platform as a whole.</tt><br>
<tt><br>
Thanks,<br>
Jim Knutson<br>
WebSphere J2EE Architect</tt><br>
<br>
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