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At 02:16 PM 2/6/2003 -0500, Mike Champion wrote:
>On Thu, 06 Feb 2003 11:49:38 -0500, Jonathan Robie
><jonathan.robie@datadirect-technologies.com> wrote:
>>There is no one API for XML, and there are real advantages to several
>>common APIs. I don't think we're done with innovation here.
>
>I agree ... why don't you agree that there is no one syntax for XML, and
>there are real advantages to several alternatives, and we're not done with
>innovation here either?
I think of XML as an exchange format and an archival format. If we have
fifty different exchange formats and archival formats, each better than the
next, then the net result is that you can no longer read everyone's data
using the same parser.
>I should probably put a smiley because some people feel so strongly that
>the XML syntax is the rock on which all this is founded, and we really
>don't need to go around that track once again.
There's already an awful lot of XML data, and the XML spec per se is pretty
easy to read if someone 150 years from now needs to figure out how to
interpret a file.
>We pretty much have to agree that XML got where it is today by
>innovatively considering the advantages of subsetting SGML syntax. I'm
>just not clear where the idea comes from that XML 1.x itself should be
>immune to the forces that created it and the forces that are driving the
>specs surrounding it.
Using a subset of XML does not cause compatibility problems with XML as
defined, so there are no problems with that approach for either exchange or
archival. Changing the syntax in incompatible ways *is* problematic. Of
course, people will play around and try out different ideas and syntaxes,
but I think an incompatible replacement for XML would have to deliver huge
benefits, and I do not know what those benefits would be.
>This reminds me a bit of von Clausewitz' maxim, "A conqueror is always a
>lover of peace." :-)
As far as I can tell, peace is the main reason given for fighting wars. And
one of the main reasons for coming up with yet another data format to
replace XML is to make it easier to exchange data compatibly among programs.
Jonathan
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