Diversity (was RE: The lists I monitor)

["Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@simonstl.com>]

At 01:40 PM 5/8/01 +0200, Anderson, John wrote:
>Wasn't the whole point of XML to remove diversity so we could all join 
>hands and dance together as one big happy web enabled platform independent 
>family?
>
>Or am I oversimplifying things a bit . . .

That's an interesting question.

My usual answer is that XML 1.0 removed syntactic diversity, letting us use 
each others's tools and share information without worrying about byte-level 
issues, much as TCP/IP provides a foundation on which other network 
applications can build.

On the vocabulary and meaning levels, however, I'd suggest that it does the 
reverse.  While some see standardization of those levels as the next big 
task of XML, I think there's a much more exciting opportunity for 
programmers and users to represent information in the forms they find most 
convenient to their particular circumstances.

That would mean an explosion of diversity (vocabularies) in a much smaller 
set of circumstances (as XML replaces thousands of other possible base 
formats).

As for joining hands, I think it'll be a long while!


Simon St.Laurent - Associate Editor, O'Reilly & Associates
XML Elements of Style / XML: A Primer, 2nd Ed.
XHTML: Migrating Toward XML
http://www.simonstl.com - XML essays and books