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I agree, but the problem is, was that the question being asked? XML 1.0 remains a simple well-formed file and an optional DTD. The rest is applications of that then used in a system to work with the system components (editors, parsers, validators, link managers, inference engines, protocol engines, scripting engines, transform engines and so forth). So one can say one has mastered XML and be about as apt as having learned to write <imperative>See<object>Jack<action>Run</action></object></imperative> and the claim is almost as vacuous. That bit of buffoonery where we throw a twenty page spec to the floor and announce a miracle while turning our backs to the horned animal waiting to charge only hurts us. It gets us articles like the one from Kendall that have to de-mythologize that miracle and say, "well, we had to sell it first." It's true but caveat emptor becomes caveat vendor rather quickly. So the honest answer is, no. XML is not easy to learn, no XML is not simpler than SGML, no we did not make anyone's job simpler except for the individual writing the parser and since so few do that, the benefits are nil. The only benefit is that SGML is now in use on the web in a subset form and that is a real benefit over the endless and incompatible extensions to HTML. In short, we cleaned up the mess we knew we had to clean up after the last round of rhetoric about simplicity, "shining moments of clarity" and all the other BS that was filling the stable. What the XMLers have to accept is that it refills every night and the river has to keep flowing through it every day to keep it clean. The job is Herculean. Len http://www.mp3.com/LenBullard Ekam sat.h, Vipraah bahudhaa vadanti. Daamyata. Datta. Dayadhvam.h -----Original Message----- From: Jonathan Borden [mailto:jborden@m...] > XML 1.0 is. This is the key point. Here is XML -- XML is itself simple. It _enables_ you to be simple, but if you want to be complicated, go ahead. Perhaps we should stop talking about the family of specs surrounding XML as if they _are_ XML itself. That is to say, defining "XML in totality" is akin to defining binary logic (simple) and defining the latest multiGHz Pentium IV with a gazillion gates _as_ part of "binary logic in totality".
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