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[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: What is XML for?
 At 11:50 AM 1/29/99 -0600, Paul Prescod wrote: >I've noticed a very unfortunate trend among my customers. They want to >replace relational databases with XML. They want to replace purpose-built >query languages with XSL. They want to replace object models and UML with >DTDs and "XML Schemas". People are also talking about using the DOM as the >interface to data of all sorts. This trend is very worrisome and will >likely lead to a backlash against XML. I've noticed a very unfortunate trend among certain members of the XML community. Whenever someone proposes using XML in any way that goes beyond interchange and documents, they become very concerned that the system proposed won't work and that the sky will fall in on XML. They see backlash lurking in every corner, with hordes of journalists waiting for XML to collapse so they can proclaim it the next OS/2. (Apologies to any diehard OS/2 folks out there.) XML is many things to many people. It is simple enough and generic enough that if you try hard enough, you can stretch it to fit just about any problem in computing. It may not always be the optimal approach, but it fits many problems very well. XML is not just a file format any more, or an interchange format. XML describes a set of structures that are extremely generic, and which map very well to a wide variety of structures used in data processing. Some people look at an XML document and see the markup; others see the structures; others see a transformation of those structures, into program data, a program, or nicely formatted programs for an opera. XML has, in many ways, left behind its roots as a document format and become something else, a generic set of tools for manipulating information. Tools that work for XML will work on data across an enormous number of domains, and if those tools follow similarly generic standards, they may even work across implementations from an enormous number of vendors using very different technology. I don't feel that we've achieved nirvana, but for the first time we may actually have an opportunity to genuinely move toward interoperable computing without having to all be using the same languages and platforms, and that's a big step. Why does XML have an opportunity, when SGML had the same tools and more? Because it's simple enough for neophytes to walk up to and explore, and because processing it isn't very hard. Two good things that lower the cost of development significantly. >I'm working in the opposite direction. I wonder: > > * Isn't OQL pretty close to an XML query language? > > * Aren't STEP and ODL pretty close to being XML object model schema >languages? > > * Wouldn't it be nice to have more formal mechanisms for characterizing >languages (like XQL, XPointer, URLs, JavaScript) that do NOT use >angle-bracket syntax? You can wander back into the woods if you like, but don't expect everyone to follow you. Heading back to implementation-specific standards is necessary for some applications, but it isn't going to work across the board. Your last point about formal mechanisms is worth considering, though I'm not sure it's 'the opposite direction' at all. >Another worrisome trend is that people creating the XML standards would >rather invent rather than learn about things that already exist. >"NI@theW3C" syndrome? What, like XSL? Building a whole new formatting vocabulary when CSS already exists? I suppose. The W3C does have the key responsibility of building things _for the Web_, and if that happens to spill over into other fields, great. But I'd rather see the W3C invent something new that works on the Web than leave us with older tools that don't work well on the Web. I'd like to see the W3C open its process a lot more, but apart from that I don't have too many problems with their mandate. What's XML for? Anything you like. Build it, and see if people come. Simon St.Laurent XML: A Primer / Building XML Applications (March) Sharing Bandwidth / Cookies http://www.simonstl.com xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev@i... Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@i... the following message; (un)subscribe xml-dev To subscribe to the digests, mailto:majordomo@i... the following message; subscribe xml-dev-digest List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@i...) 
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