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RE: Time to put SGML out to pasture?

• To: Marcus Carr <mrc@a...>
• Subject: RE: Time to put SGML out to pasture?
• From: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...>
• Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 08:37:23 -0600
• Cc: xml-dev@l...

So nice to have a vacation.

James' remark seems more ill-mannered than technical or 
was a fawlty towers attempt at humor, but 
let that go.  ISO owns SGML and nothing 
said here or there changes that.  SGML is an international 
standard and still a working beast; there is no call 
to marginalize or "stab".   XML and SGML may go separate 
ways, but that doesn't serve any interest well.  It is 
time for ISO 8879 to be updated to reflect new requirements 
as any standard must. I don't know if SGML depends on 
XML to survive, but SGML must be kept current to be relevant 
regardless of provenance.  

The ISO/W3C alliance on markup is useful.
  
Every time the XML community uses SGML and ISO as a 
whipping boy for its frustrations, the privatization of XML 
and the markup technologies by the commercial interests 
represented by the W3C increases.  We complain about embrace and 
extend but don't notice that often we are making that 
possible with ill-considered tactics. 

We are not well served by a knife fight.  We have to 
look ahead and understand that an organization that 
today looks invincible can very quickly become irrelevant.  
The XML leaders take public positions which any 
serious business analyst knows are untenable (patents, 
small vs large companies, etc) with predictable results.  
So take these for what they are: politics of the moment.  

As for the rest of the speech, we should consider 
those remarks separately.   XML is now on a path some 
will welcome and others will see as self-limiting.  
Preserve options.  I agree that the foundations should 
be made solid and with most of the rest. 

Happy New Year to all!  Praying for rain in Sydney...

len

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