xml-dev - RE: Origins of XML

["Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@ingr.com>]

Tim Bray and Rick Jeliffe have it right.  

We've been through this before.  This is a 
good time for OASIS to add a prominent page 
that can be referred to on the history of 
markup technologies.  I say that with deliberation.  
Without understanding developments back to 
the original GenCode, GML, SGML, and now 
XML, one always gets a skewed view of the invention 
and reinvention of the critical concepts.  
I doubt that anyone personally involved 
would object to it, and if it were reviewed 
openly, comments reconciled, etc (as deRose 
et al did for their HyTime book), I think 
an excellent saga would result.  You need the 
reviews because there are lots of instances 
where one point of view simply doesn't tell 
the story (the Rashomon effect).

Otherwise, you will have to keep doing this 
over and over every time a journalist or a 
vendor needs a controversy to get a few hits 
or to promote a point of view advantageous to 
their new product.  Don't leave it to the hacks; 
get the first person stories while the eyes 
and ears that saw and heard are still available. 

Len Bullard
Intergraph Public Safety
clbullar@ingr.com
http://fly.hiwaay.net/~cbullard/lensongs.ram

Ekam sat.h, Vipraah bahudhaa vadanti.
Daamyata. Datta. Dayadhvam.h


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