[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: ANN: XML and Databases article
[David Megginson:] > There aren't many people alive who actually know Groves (we couldn't > all fit in a Cessna, but we probably could squeeze into a Dash-8 > with a few empty seats), so it had no real familiarity advantage. <rant type=grove-paradigm-promoting> Groves are going to turn out to be like Linux, which began with a very few people who had a vision that turned out to work. As was the case with Linux in those early days, there is nobody doing big media advertising about it, and even the trade press, whose income is derived from such advertising, hasn't heard of groves very much. That will change. Linux has risen on the strength of the idea that people can and should be in direct control of their operating system, and that the result of such control will be increased human productivity. Similarly, groves will rise on the strength of the idea that people should be in direct control of their information. The product-differentiation barriers that vendors have set up around their customers' data must come down. There is no information that civilization can afford to leave out of the mainstream of information processing. XML is a step toward this goal, but it requires that the data be converted into XML; it will never happen that all data will be stored (or even interchanged) as XML. The grove paradigm brings the barriers down without necessitating data conversion. The grove paradigm lets the markup be elsewhere than inside the data. Even though groves are the technical foundation of the SGML, DSSSL, and HyTime international standards (respectively the proud, heavier-duty forerunners of XML, XSL, and XLink, among other W3C Recommendations), there is no money for groves precisely because system vendors have *less than no reason* to popularize this dangerous idea. As with Linux, however, that is the very reason why the grove paradigm will become commonplace: it will wring massive inefficiencies out of the software systems marketplace, and out of software systems. As everybody who attended Metastructures in Montreal last month knows, people who are into solving tough real-world information management problems, like DataChannel / ISOGEN, are selling and developing the grove paradigm as a core strategy, because they know that there is nothing else out there that compares to the power it brings to solving tough business problems, both technically and politically. Other system vendors cannot ignore this situation forever. It won't be too long before groves are a mass-market phenomenon (even if they're not called "groves" by then). The opportunities are almost unbelievably large. </rant> But don't worry, David: if you don't provide a property set for XML as part of the work of the XML infoset group, we'll take what you do produce and turn it into a property set. That way, it'll be machine processable as just another notation, by engine software that is just another plug-in to the wider world that includes all other notations, and all other database schemas. That will be a good thing, and we can't let a little matter of syntax stand in the way of progress. -Steve -- Steven R. Newcomb, President, TechnoTeacher, Inc. srn@t... http://www.techno.com ftp.techno.com voice: +1 972 231 4098 fax +1 972 994 0087 pager (150 characters max): srn-page@t... 3615 Tanner Lane Richardson, Texas 75082-2618 USA 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/ and on CD-ROM/ISBN 981-02-3594-1 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...)
|
PURCHASE STYLUS STUDIO ONLINE TODAY!Purchasing Stylus Studio from our online shop is Easy, Secure and Value Priced! Download The World's Best XML IDE!Accelerate XML development with our award-winning XML IDE - Download a free trial today! Subscribe in XML format
|