RE: [xml-dev] 10th anniversary of the annoucement of XML ..need help

["Bullard, Claude L \(Len\)" <len.bullard@intergraph.com>]

Accident or luck?  I've met some awfully bitter and vainglorious kids
who worked on Netscape and still believe they were bested unfairly when
in hindsight it's easy to see they were led naively and arrogantly.  No
one escapes a bit of that in their careers so like a one hit wonder
band, one can move on to new adventures or languish in a room with one
gold record, a book of pix, and a few hangers on.  Boring.

Don't give up too soon.  Viable ideas have a timing aspect because of
that intersection with other forces.  Think of the other XML
hypermedia/multimedia formats that have emerged since.  Consider the
effects that these are having on the browser frameworks as operating
systems.  I think the mainstream operating system vendors and browser
vendors are being timid in the face of innovation but again, they always
are and for the reasons you cite.  Once one is lugging the 75 pounds of
rocks on their backs known as 'legacy' but actually 'existing market to
which maintenance is owed', the bandwidth for complete new starts isn't
there.  Look at the other formats, eg, SVG, X3D, and now Croquet (a late
binding Squeak/Smalltalk system for peer to peer real time 3D and
collaboration).  All in some form are using XML.   And in the real time
3D systems particularly, there is plenty of room for innovation.

Think of this:  in 2D button pushing GUIs, you find events.  In real
time 3D systems with smart mobile objects, events find you.  That is a
profoundly different approach to GUIs and working with hypermedia.

Timing and listening.  Over a long career, the ideas that were losers in
the last cycle tend to come back with a vengence in the next cycle.
Complex languages and standards are pulled apart by the tidal forces of
marketshare, innovation and the sheer mendacity of young turks looking
to make a score.   Hytime has been an abandoned mine rich with veins of
ideas and concepts.  DSSSL too.   If one labored hard on opening those
mines and buttressing them only to lose the investment, there is a
certain bitter taste.  On the other hand, there are opportunities
because if one's can shake the legacy of one's own bitterness, one knows
a lot about the routes, where the richer veins are, and with maturity
that begets leadership, one can go mining.

I didn't come to this party to become a name at the top of the long
tail.  Ego is a stiff awkward dancer.  I came to fight for good ideas
and good people because that will ultimately make a difference for a
much larger part of the living history.  It won't matter eventually if
our names are on the short lists, the long lists or no lists as long as
the good ideas make good things happen.  We'll have done the job.
Personally, I just don't want to shut my eyes for the long sleep
thinking I didn't step up to that fight.  Then it really will have been
meaningless, Gavin.  And no bloody fun.

If we are having fun, we are doing the right thing.  If we aren't, ask
why, because the toys just keep getting better.

len

From: Gavin Thomas Nicol [mailto:gtn@rbii.com] 

On Jun 6, 2006, at 11:02 AM, Bullard, Claude L ((Len)) wrote:
> We showed that doing HTML was
> trivial, but Unisys reacted stupidly.

We had DynaText talking to DynaWeb, doing XML fragments and an optimised
'netbook' protocol before Netscape 1.0 shipped. It was
*way* more powerful than Netscape at the time... a slight accident of
history and things might have been very different. Ah well. The real
shame is that the vision of XML as an improved hypermedia format got
lost in the noise and market realities.