XBRL Syntax Editors Versus Semantic Modeling Tools
Friday, November 18, 2011 at 08:02AM
Charlie in Creating SEC XBRL Financial Filings, Digital Financial Reporting

Today when you go to look at XBRL tools, what you find is XBRL technical syntax editors.  This includes XBRL taxonomy creation software and XBRL instance creation software.

What is needed, in my view, is more along the lines of semantic modeling tools.  Your typical business users will never be able to work with XBRL at the XBRL technical syntax level; nor should they want to and nor should they have to.

Clearly the first generation of software tools and applications needed to be low-level functionality which allows other developers to work at the XBRL technical syntax level.  As software matures, business user applications such as applications used to create SEC XBRL financial filings and their supporting taxonomies will be more along the lines of semantic, structured modeling tools; not the XBRL syntax editors which we see today.

Article originally appeared on XBRL-based structured digital financial reporting (http://xbrl.squarespace.com/).
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