RE: [xml-dev] XML's place in the world

["Michael Kay" <mike@saxonica.com>]

> 
> Ah - "the chattering classes".  That's almost as useful a 
> phrase as "politically incorrect" for avoiding engagement.  
> And in data-poor fields, like this one, it pretty much lets 
> you believe whatever you'd prefer to believe.

In the absence of evidence, I think it's better to believe nothing than to
make wild guesses. And I do think there is a very big difference between
what it is fashionable to talk about, and what people are actually using. 
> 
> I could offer book sales data, in which XML book sales have 
> plunged well below the fall of the rest of the market, but I 
> suspect that's not very interesting as it effectively 
> measures the volume of chatter people are willing to pay for...
> 

I have a theory that the people who buy books about a technology tend to be
early adopters. (Late adopters go on training courses, or learn from their
colleagues, or learn by trial and error.) There aren't any early adopters of
XML any more. People are doing their third or fourth project, and you don't
need new books for that. 

Michael Kay