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From Demosthenes-
"XML#.
XML is the most over rated technology of the 20th and 21st century!!!"
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Care to elaborate, Demosthenes? I know nothing about XML and would love to know why you think it's overrated. -Jeb [Jeb Trowbridge's Radio Weblog]
Been a while since I looked at all the logs!
I assume that overrated is in the context of a busines solution, as a technology solution I fail to see how in the history of computing it had anything more to offer than ASCII. In fact ASCII helped better in inter-operability in most of computing histort including the present than XML. XML would have to help us either in business model innovation or as a product innovation. I fail to see where the product innovation comes in since XML by it-self is nothing more than another SGML. The root of all mark-up languages including HTML. SGML description were standarized and that is great. Unline HTML XML can have its own tags. Which means an XML document can conform to a "tag" schema decribing the allowed tags or elements so to speak of the document. In HTML this is part of the spec and does not change from version to version thus HTML 4.0 is very well understood because it is constant between versions, which is a plus but very bad when you want to descibe data (HTML descibes visual presentations,at least intended too) differently depending on who you are and who is the audience. Here is were XML comes.
The original intention was to have a way to descibe data and come out of the need to re-describe schema and come up with new versions; This mostly was positioned inthe marker as an EDI (Electronic Data Exchnage) a very weel understood and robust specification for business which has been in use for decades (the dawn of computing). No what XML did was to give poeple the ability to describe data in an SGML formed way basically using tags or document elements AND also said that the schema of its document is up to the author. The reader can then receive the document without the schema and try to figure our the data but will still know that the document conforms to a readable version (in XML speak it is well formed). The reader if he has the schema will be able to validate the document against the schema and know that the intendend meaning of each element is ( assuming the reader understands the schema and was agrees with the sender of its meaning) and that the document is actually following the schema (in XML speak it is validated) the document can contain additional information that are not part of the schema and still the reader will be able to see if it is well formed additional information can then be interpreted by the reader as he wants to.
This might be the point to mention that independent of protocol and transmittion and network specifics XML documents are in human readable form basically ASCII characters.
Our UserLand logs are XML documents, and that is what RSS is just another XML document which happens to have an XML schema that says Title/Link/Categoy/Enclosure/Message Body etc are part of the document. That is all.
Therefore all readers can read the RSS and undestand the intent of the document having the Syndication being define by the XML schema. BTW the XML schema is also a readable ASCII(text) document with meta-data about the XML document elements and is also in XML form. (by virtue of being an SGML document) I think so older SW implementations of XML if not still around might have used the DTD instead of XML-schema . DTS =document type descriptor i think
So I don't see it as a technological or product innovation, at all. First it failed to replace EDI or its adoption cycle is more than 10 years which is highly unusual for a SW technological innovation. Then i think it got re-positioned in the market as the inter-operability solution. Just because we have an XML schema that everyone has does not mean that you can actually use it in the same way as everyone else. Also it does not mean that anyone with a 1970s computer using ASCII could not come up with communication SW to accomplish the same thing. Besides 1980s technologicy such as CORBA has addressed the inter-operability questions. And in the 1990s it was eclipsed by Jave Object Serialization. BTW 1970-1980 non-relational database or Object Oriented datbases could process (parse data) with the same flexibility as XML. Keep in mind that XML does not mean Software code only the SGML specification IBM/MS and everybody else on the planet have their own SW to parse and validate XML which is standard but what does the application SW do with the data after it gets it? STill has to know what the XML schema elements means. Therefore meaning and knowledege or inter-operabilitiy is still an issue. This is the second missed the train for XML event. Now XML is a de-facto standard and everyone is on it. What happened?
Is it a global mistake, the lights were off when SW was developed?
Is it overjealous technocrats creating another abstraction of the most mundane technology and calling it the best next things since sliced bread?
Is it lazy programmers that wanted to have an easy way to see and manipulate data over networks and "parse" the #$#$ of it for what ever purpose it pleased them except being cool?
Is it because the Java came into play and that made XML make sense? I don't think so, one has nothing to do which each other. Althought I would tend to think that most XML parsers are written in Jave at least till recently.
And where is the business innovation? Is it because everyone decided to do XML that the network externality pushed this into mainstream?
Or is is because business wanted to have a solution and in the midst of the 90's 100Billion overspend in SW it made it way throught to people that did undertand that the same benefits could be achived with even legacy systems?
Or is is not over-rated because it did help business manage process, people and data. No integration returns have been solely attributed to XML. More like good best practices , and traditionaly KM tools such as SW develpment methodology and business analysis tools help for increasing value through process integration and improvement.
These are my quick thoughts!
And I am not going to go to wheather XML is a programming language, a markup language perhaps.
12:42:32 AM 
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