Can XForm transform the Web? Transcending the Web as GUI.II

Designing completely abstract user interfaces for the Web requires addressing three separable aspects: presentation, logic and data. Our virtual assistant needs to know how to: prompt the user; do so in a specific order; and recognize spoken or typed entries. The first layer, presentation, addresses rendition of interactors, whether as GUI widgets, voice prompts, or paper blanks. Second, the logical layer governs the order of form field fill-in, multipage and sequenced forms, and scripting for input validation. Finally, the data layer adds more structure and coherency to existing text string-only values by applying richer schemas (types). This kind of coordinated evolution is precisely the mission of the World Wide Web Consortium, whose XForms working group is tackling these interdependent issues. While XHTML brought existing HTML 4.0 usage into XML compliance, XForms was specifically chartered to innovate solutions to support handheld, television, and desktop browsers; deploy richer user interfaces to meet the needs of business, consumer, and device-control applications; improve internationalization; and decouple presentation, logic, and data. The paper considers whether XForm can transform the Web