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Re: Out of topic or out of interest?

• To: <xml-dev@l...>
• Subject: Re: Out of topic or out of interest?
• From: "Dave Winer" <dave@u...>
• Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 07:50:38 -0700
• References: <YSVPHBQNW41HD830824YFC3VJETNVR.3cd207b6@MChamp> <1020433761.2161.216.camel@l...>

SOAP and XML-RPC are applications of XML.

You can keep doing all that you want to do, they don't interfere with that.

Perhaps it was a mistake to use XML as the encoding for remote procedure
calls, but..

1. It happened.

2. It works.

3. It does hide the XML.

4. For most people that's a good thing.

Have you ever tried to write Web content in XML? Have you ever tried to
explain to a real user (not a geek posing as a user) that they have to use
XML? It doesn't go over very well, I promise you.

I believe there are applications where XML helps bootstrap functionality,
for example, we use XML to specify navigation links on weblogs, or to design
a survey, but if you want to get adoption from real users, you have to put
some kind of non-XML user interface on top of it.

Another thought -- there was a roadmap for XML, but it got further and
further away from what's commercially viable. There is no law that's
enforceable that says that everyone has to get on board with the roadmap. If
you believe in the roadmap, you can keep going down that path, but you can't
force everyone else to do it.

A little story, we had a meltdown on our servers a few days ago. XML-RPC
allowed us to patch around the meltdown. It saved our ass. If it hadn't been
there, our users would still not be able to update the weblogs we host for
them. This is the world I live in. It's so pragmatic and humbling. That the
technology got our users on the air while we fix the problem is all the
justification it needs, as far as I'm concerned.

Dave

• References:
  • Re: Out of topic or out of interest?
    • From: Mike Champion <mc@x...>
  • Re: Out of topic or out of interest?
    • From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@s...>

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