[Pythonmac-SIG] Re: Pythonmac-SIG digest, Vol 1 #739 - 7 msgs

[Richard Gordon]

At 10:39 AM +0200 6/18/01, Jack Jansen wrote:
>XML has one *huge* advantage over the various other standards that were out
>there: people are actually using it! And that means that I can get at the
>inside of their fileformat!

Some are, but what does that really mean? Given the bewildering (and 
worsening) array of schemas, namespace problems, and general chaos 
that's marked XML's path to this point, I don't see it as the panacea 
that's been hyped as everything from a "replacement" for html to a 
linguis franca for all file structures (a substantial minority of 
which are already accessible via things like http://www.wotsit.org/ 
anyway). Perhaps my outlook is colored by having used my own markup 
for years to process raw data for publication, etc., and being mildly 
amused that something so obvious and ancient has been seized upon as 
revolutionary.

If the revolution is supposed to be standardization rather than 
technique, then you might want to take a peek at "Why 90 Percent of 
XML Standards Will Fail." 
http://www.zdnet.com/devhead/stories/articles/0,4413,2689765,00.html 
I don't recall exactly when this was published, but it's certainly 
been since the beginning of the year and I'm not aware of any 
developments that would undermine the author's list of reasons. My 
prediction is that the only standards that are widely adopted will be 
whatever M$ inflicts on us.

I suppose that we are completely off-topic now, but the really 
revolutionary attribute of XML is that it will spawn an entirely new 
generation of security exploits against people using it, beginning 
with M$' Smart Tags in XP 
(http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/18160.html).


Richard Gordon
--------------------
Gordon Design
Web Design/Database Development
http://www.richardgordon.net