US Navy MID (WAS RE: [xml-dev] Microsoft Hypes Up XUL As The Greatest Expiriment Since Adam And Eve)

["Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@ingr.com>]

Because claims of standardization are too often used to inhibit innovation, 
a visit in WaaaayBack machine is needed.  The IETM vets have seen it all.

"The MID effort was initiated by Carderock Division Naval Surface Warfare
Center (CDNSWC) in early 1994. With the initiation, funding was obtained and
a MID committee was formed. The original MID committee included both
government and industry representatives. By December 1994 they had produced
a draft MID specification (dated November 1994), the MID SGML DTD, and two
limited prototype MID processing and presentation systems that both run
under MS Windows 3.1."

http://navycals.dt.navy.mil/mid/mid.html

For grins, some thinking on this kind of experiment from 94 to 98.

http://www.infoloom.com/gcaconfs/WEB/paris98/newcomb.HTM
http://e-books.org/presentation1999.htm

This one is particularly good:

http://www.dcnicn.com/lamp/cals_ide/task05/html/Mid_dpir/MIDfinal.htm

The history is a bit sanitized, but the efforts were well underway 
even while HTML was struggling to get noticed.   The team's assessment after

seeing HTML was that it would win because it would go like a grassfire, 
but that it was a hard left into a brick wall and that the concepts 
and techniques pioneered by the MID would resurface.  And they have 
over and over again.

So don't ask for a lot of sympathy for XUL.  As others have discovered, 
it doesn't matter how good the song is as long as the chord police are 
there to keep it off the radio, and then when a song does punch through, 
it is usually with serious investment and backing in the marketing.  XAML 
can be a hit or not, but the XULers need to work hard at promoting something

other than "we were first" because they weren't.  I don't think MID was 
either.  As I recall, there was a research paper from U of Waterloo on 
the topic of SGMLizing the Win resource files that predates MID, so if 
anyone has any patents they are sitting on waiting to torpedo these things, 
you better have some really good documentation for your due dilligence. 
Since MID was heavily discussed on comp.text.sgml, you can't claim it 
wasn't available either and the Waterloo paper was found in the local 
library.

len