One of the things which are really hard when you specialize in XML schema languages is to play the classical « elevator story » and explain in the time it takes to go from the ground floor to your 7th floor what you are doing to own your life to your neighbor.
That’s already tough to play the elevator story explaining what is XML, just try to imagine how difficult it is with XML schema languages!
In fact, I have found that the shorter amount of time it takes me to really initiate people (that is, not my neighbors but people already knowing XML quite well) to XML Schema languages is half a day and I have made a tutorial to perform that initiation!
The next times I’ll be giving this tutorial will be on April 18th in Amsterdam for XML Europe and then on July 27th in Portland for the Open Source Conference.
I have already been giving that tutorial quite a few times at various conferences including previous issues of XML Europe, XML 2003, OSCON and even SD West 2004 no later than last month but I am still enjoying giving that talk as much as I did the first time.
As far as I know, its agenda is unique and no other tutorials or training cover all three big schema languages (Schematron, RELAX NG and W3C XML Schema).
Most of the attendees seem to enjoy this tutorial as well and to be astonished by the scope that is hiding beyond the term of « XML schema languages ». Of course, many of the concepts seem familiar to those of them who are DTD experts, but the approach taken by these « modern » schema languages is quite different and people tend to underestimate the amount of work that has been done in these areas.
I have been asked why people should want to learn about three different schema languages if they are going to use only one or two of them.
Of course, people can always learn no more than what they will immediately need, but I think that it’s a good thing to know your environment before stepping into a new discipline.
When you start learning computer science, you can start learning only a single programming language, let’s say Visual Basic, if you think that it’s the one that you’ll be using later on. I would argue that you’ll become a better programmer (even in Visual Basic) if you have an insight of other programming languages (let’s say C and Java or Python). Furthermore, you may also find out that Visual Basic isn’t always the best choice for what you’ll have to do later on.
That’s the same with schema languages. Even if right now you think that you’ll be using only one of them (let’s say W3C XML Schema), you’ll get a better understanding of W3C XML Schema if you learn about other approaches: that will help you to understand its most basic principles and also its limitations. And eventually, you may find out that W3C XML Schema isn’t always the best choice for what you’ll have to do…
See you in Amsterdam!