xml-dev - RE: Microsoft's Role in the XML Community (WAS RE: Important: The SAXC

[Joshua Allen <joshuaa@microsoft.com>]

> >XML shapes behavior because of the way one 
> >has to go about implementing it.  Few technologies 
> >I've worked with require as much cooperation 
> >and negotiation among "the humans" as markup  
> >does.  That is a strength where the culture 
> >is fit, that is, demonstrates a proficiency 
> >at cooperation and negotiation, and a true 
> >"killer app" where they don't because it 
> >can quickly put an unfit company out of business. 
> >
> I agree completely with this. When I talk and tutor on "XML" (which is
> wider than XML V1.0) this is the area that I highlight first. 
> It is about
> humans cooperating to make it possible for machines to talk 
> to each other.
> XML-DEV was founded very much on this philosophy.
> 


I have to disagree just a bit.  I think that successful
implementation of EDI took much more consensus among
the parties involved.  Of course we all have to agree
on what XSLT is and what XML is, but after that, it is
much easier than ever before to deal with a pragmatic
world where people disagree.

I worked with automotive systems using EDIFACT and X12
many years ago, and have seen all sorts of firsthand
trouble with semantics/metadata and other such disagreements
in other areas of data exchange.  If you think it was *ever*
possible for people to do meaningful interchange without
intense cooperation between humans, you are perhaps new to
the field.  Pragmatically, universal concensus is impossible
to achieve, especially as systems grow larger and more
heterogeneous.  EDI being successful required automotive
companies pressuring vendors and pushing frameworks and
even tools down to suppliers.  This sort of centralized
authority can scale only so far.

In my opinion, the very beauty of XML is that you have semantics
shipped with the data (and as XML Schema gets ratified, this
is even more useful).  So now I do not have to demand complete
agreement with you to exchange data.  I can transform and
translate what I need, and we now have to agree only on the
parts we need to agree on.

We've always had to get human cooperation to exchange data --
the only thing XML changes is that it's easier to work with 
people who disagree with us now.


Joshua Allen
Microsoft eBusiness West Region
"No challenge can withstand the assault of sustained thinking" - Voltaire
 

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