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Len writes:
> Because of HTML, we have essentially a one client
> world and most of what XML does well, works on
> the client. The backend is middle-ware mediated
> adaptors to what are mostly relational db servers.
> So the action is in the access layer and the client.
> The client is frozen in the "won't give up HTML
> until they pry it from our dead cold fingers",
> so that leaves the access layer.
I think you're recapitulating the same mistake that I described in my
previous message here, seeing HTML as the enemy, not as something of
value separate from "more advanced" perspectives.
There are an awful lot of Web developers who are quite frustrated by
HTML. Working in HTML for any period of time, especially up close,
leaves most developers wanting something more. We've had various
solutions - Dynamic HTML, Flash, CSS, and XML.
The ones which have caught on are the ones which integrate most easily
with HTML - CSS and scripting in the forefront. While Flash is widely
available, it's a fairly different toolkit, and I don't believe Flash is
likely to take over the Web whatever Macromedia's press releases might
suggest.
XML appeared with a huge amount of attitude - "let's reinvent linking
and styling" - and very little clear value to Web developers. Even
apart from browser implementation issues, most Web developers never
really got past why, and I don't think the XML community ever made a
good effort at answering why. (I have tried, but don't always find my
own answers convincing.)
Some answers have proven useful over time, and tools like Cocoon and
AxKit make it easier to demonstrate how XML can actually be useful to
Web developers, but I still get a sense that the XML world sees the HTML
world as a problem, not as an opportunity.
Lots of people would like more than HTML - I think that explains a lot
of the interest in XForms and SVG - but don't see much reason to
reinvent the whole thing in XML's image. It's not simply a matter of
bad kudzu.
-------------
Simon St.Laurent - SSL is my TLA
http://simonstl.com may be my URI
http://monasticxml.org may be my ascetic URI
urn:oid:1.3.6.1.4.1.6320 is another possibility altogether
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