RE: [xml-dev] XML Buzzwords. RFC

[Sean McGrath <sean.mcgrath@propylon.com>]

At 12:19 28/11/2001 -0800, Stuart Celarier wrote:
>No, silly, ISO really stands for Organisation Internationale de
>Normalisation. Please see http://www.iso.org/iso/fr/xsite/guide.html#Abbrev.

It is also the Greek prefix "iso" meaning "same".

The string "ISO" has multiple interpretations and is thus useful
in poetry, exegesis of Joycean texts and as an example of
dry standards work occasionally having a sense of humour.

See also: the not-what-you-might-first-think meaning
of "OO" in the Third Manifesto by Darwen and Date
(http://www.acm.org/sigmod/record/issues/9503/manifesto.ps).

All well worn acronyms come to represent lunes in the
noosphere rather than crisp points in the spheres
surface.

"SQL" and "HTML" as statements, have become almost
meaningless other than as a rough guide to the position
of the lune on the noosphere.

The same will happen to XML I fear. Especially
if we continue not to have at least GAXP (Generally Accepted XML Principles)
by analogy with GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles).

or (preferably) an agreed upon taxonomy of
isomorphic forms and null-ish transformations
from XML to processor and back to XML again.

This is happening by stealth at the moment as
individual technologies or products invent their
own isomorphic forms. They are doing it on islands, often
far removed from public view and expanding
the lune as they do so.

A tangentially related article I wrote recently for ITWorld
http://www.itworld.com/nl/xml_prac/10182001/

Sean