Hi Folks
Well, I apologize for no hard data here
but feel free to contest what I say then I will try to find some data:
XML is a leading open content format and
is a leading open data format. The key term is "open" - which herein
means there are lots of tools, it has an exchange format (text) and it is
backed by a number of open standards that flesh it out in many dimensions.
As an open format XML has gone further
than any other such format in the history of computing.
There are other important open data
standards - CSV in the past and now JSON as well as SGML. None of these
have seen the breadth of application and number of adoptions as XML (measured
in kilograms).
Jim
From: Mike Sokolov
[mailto:sokolov@ifactory.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009
12:04 PM
To: Michael Kay
Cc: 'Simon St.Laurent';
xml-dev@lists.xml.org
Subject: Re: [xml-dev] XML's place
in the world
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
And I thought y'all were
discussing the sales of books formatted *as* XML! I'd be interested in
comparative sales data there, if you have it. I suspect the volume is
rapidly increasing, especially if you consider EPUB to be fundamentally XML,
even though it is only XHTML. Certainly I don't see anyone proposing to
offer books in JSON format, or as SQL databases or name/value stores or
whatever.
But this merely supports the point that XML continues to provide value in its
core sweet spot. I don't have any evidence about non-document-oriented
XML usage.
-Mike
