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Re: Re: Remembering the original XML vision

• To: Sean McGrath <sean.mcgrath@p...>,xml-dev@l...
• Subject: Re: Re: Remembering the original XML vision
• From: Jonathan Robie <jonathan.robie@d...>
• Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2003 11:03:00 -0500
• In-reply-to: <5.1.0.14.0.20030215142422.02775720@m...>
• References: <5.2.0.9.0.20030215082258.03f498d8@n...-techno logies.com><5.1.0.14.0.20030213121839.03083488@m...>

At 02:33 PM 2/15/2003 +0000, Sean McGrath wrote:

>A direction perhaps best addressed by revisiting ASN.1 or Corba or 
>something - not botching XML.

With respect, ASN.1 and Corba are precisely the kind of thing that many 
dataheads were running away from when they turned to XML. Regardless, I 
don't think anyone is going to be able to stop people from using XML for 
data, or from wanting datatypes for their XML.

>What doc-heads object to is the peripheralisation of *documents* so 
>starkly evidenced by the brutish intraveneous injection of "data speak" 
>into the core of the XML 'stack' from certain quarters.
>
>It did not have to go into the core, did not have to be so invasive. Its 
>really, really sad that it was allowed to, thus tilting the whole balance 
>of the XML "vision" violently in one direction.

I think you are probably complaining mainly about W3C XML Schema, which is 
not, incidentally, part of the XML Core, and is still not even mentioned in 
the XML spec per se. I don't think DTDs are going to die any time soon. 
There's some hope that simpler schema languages like RELAX-NG may also gain 
some market share, but that's clearly not the direction the major vendors 
are pursuing. A smaller, simpler W3C XML Schema, with a careful redesign 
that allows incompatibilities with W3C XML Schema 1.0, would be a very good 
thing.

Curiously, there seems to be much more interest in using XML for documents 
in mainstream companies than there was when I was working for companies 
trying to cater specifically to the structured document market. Now that 
XML and Internet technologies are mainstream, many companies are a lot less 
afraid of using them for their documents. Since so many SGML/XML document 
management companies have had major problems getting anyone to pay for 
their products, I think this is a very good thing for the XML document world.

Jonathan 

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Re: Remembering the original XML vision
    • From: Sean McGrath <sean.mcgrath@p...>
  • Re: Re: Remembering the original XML vision
    • From: Tim Bray <tbray@t...>
  • Re: Re: Remembering the original XML vision
    • From: "G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@C...>

• References:
  • Re: New tool for handling XML in Java
    • From: Sean McGrath <sean.mcgrath@p...>
  • Re: Remembering the original XML vision
    • From: Sean McGrath <sean.mcgrath@p...>

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