In a dramatic development, scholars working in Newgrange, Ireland, have
deciphered an Ogham stone thought to have been carved by St. Patrick
himself. The text on the stone predicts, with incredible accuracy, the
trials-and-tribulations of IT professionals in the early 21st century.
Calls are mounting for St. Patrick to be named the patron saint of
Markup Technologists.
The full transcription of the Ogham stone is presented here for the
first time:
DeXiderata
Go placidly amid the noise and haste and remember what peace there may
be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender, accommodate the bizarre tag
names and strange attribute naming conventions of others.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly, making liberal use of UML
diagrams. Listen to others, even the dull and ignorant, they too have
their story and won't shut up until you have heard it.
Avoid loud style sheets and aggressive time scales, they are vexations
to the spirit. If you compare your schemas with others, you will become
vain and bitter for there will always be schemas greater and lesser
than yours -- even if yours are auto-generated.
Enjoy the systems you ship as well as your plans for new ones. Keep
interested in your own career, however humble. It's a real possession
in the changing fortunes of time and Cobol may yet make a comeback.
Exercise caution in your use of namespaces for the world is full of
namespace semantic trickery. Let this not blind you to what virtue
there is in namespace-free markup. Many applications live quite happily
without them.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign a working knowledge of RDF where
no such knowledge exists. Neither be cynical about Relax NG; for in the
face of all aridity and disenchantment in the world of markup, James
Clark is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the
things of youth such as control over the authoring subsystems and any
notion that you can dictate a directory structure for use by others.
Nurture strength of spirit to nourish you in sudden misfortune but do
not distress yourself with dark imaginings of wholesale code re-writes.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. If you cannot make that
XML document parse, go get a pizza and come back to it.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. Loosen your
content models to help your code on its way, your boss will probably
never notice.
You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and all other
acyclic graphs; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is
clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with your code, however knotted it may be. And
whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace with your self of manuals. With all its sham, drudgery, and
broken dreams, software development is a pretty cool thing to do with
your head. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
