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Afraid of Big Bad Bob? Nah. Enjoy the embrace and thrive.
The thread posed (you are misrepresenting, Uche), is that
somehow XForms has a relationship to XDoc, and by implication,
if it does and MS doesn't immediately change over, they
are being bad. They are just developing ahead of the curve.
Not "killing the web", not "extinguishing standards".
What is funny here is that had they embraced SGML and
made it their banner product, the web would be fighting
for Lisp. I just don't see MS being afraid. Heck, they
climbed on board and won. What's not to like about that?
Before judging XDocs, let's see what it is. Diversity
is a healthy thing yes, or is that a privilege
reserved to the wild young'uns only?
len
From: Uche Ogbuji [mailto:uche.ogbuji@fourthought.com]
Lovely to see you back in the mosh pit, David.
> I've just come back to xml-dev after a little absence, during which
> I've been busy working, watching my already small investment portfolio
> shrink daily, and using my leisure hours to get a private pilot's
> license instead of debating standards. I don't have any particular
> position in the current debates on XForms vs. Microsoft's thingy,
What surprises me about the XForms versus XDocs dust-up is that I think it
gives Microsoft far too much credit for its current ability to embrace and
extinguish. I've never been an MSThrall, and, to be sure, Microsoft has
almost always been irrelevant to me even as I've made a professional practice
of software development.
Maybe that's why all the hue and cry sounds as if it comes from outer space.
All I hear is that Flash MX is public enemy number one to XML and the Web.
No. Wait! XDocs is public enemy number one to XML and the Web. And wait!
There's more! Did you know the browser has completely lost relevance?
I'm sorry, but it leaves me cold as a Norwegian cod. Macromedia and Microsoft
are themselves afraid of the success of the unforseen new aegis of "openness",
as embodied by the success of the Web, XML, open source software, and the
like. I predict that if we continue to proceed in contempt of the direct
threat these interests are supposed to pose, that openness will continue to
win. Microsoft couldn't threaten the Web with MPC, or with Blackbird. They
couldn't hijack XML and Web services with BizTalk and Hailstorm. What makes
XDocs a convincing balrog?
Summary: XForms is very impressive at first glance. Continue the work on it
and never mind the snarling and moaning.
But then again, perhaps things would be more exciting if I tried on the hat of
the paranoid survivalist....
> Here's some advice.
[snip]
Sage words, to be sure.
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