Re: [xml-dev] It's too late to improve XML ... lessons learned?
Why look for improvements in the process of standardisation?
We all know the received wisdom.
“Give them the third best to go on with; the second best comes too late, the best never comes.”
Or in other words, the perfect is the enemy of the good.
You reach a point where everyone prefers something now, rather than to wait longer for something better which might never come. Diminishing returns. A painter could forever keep adding extra brush strokes to the masterpiece but at some point has to stop and say “finished”.
Now that XML exists, there is no driver for anything better. JSON was a happy accident so that does not count. It is good to have two alternatives like it is good to sow wheat in one field and barley in another in case the wheat fails over time. Having two choices is safer, even though it requires more to support both. A civilisation can fail by only sowing wheat, then along comes soil salination and then increasing crop failure. Something might happen to make either XML or JSON obsolete and then there might be enough reason to look for an improvement, but until then two imperfect standards that exist are better than in-progress standards nearing perfection but never getting finished.
But in my opinion, it is still good to aim for perfection every time, just for the virtue of it, knowing it will never be achieved but traction and sanction are improved if it is recognised that perfection was the goal.
