It's time for practical XML!

[Jonathan A. Borden]

well put.

[snip]

> Probably the most challenging area for XML is the role it plays as a
> meta language
> among application languages which do not share its foundation in a
> syntax-based
> specification.  The discussion of property sets which emerged from the
> many years
> of trying to meet the issues in SGML should be considered because all of
> the
> Internet languages whose applications must interoperate are affected.
> XML,
> indeed, markup in general cannot solve the problems of interoperation
> nor can
> virtual machine based programming languages.
>
> Len Bullard
> IPS

	Perhaps of the greatest attractions of XML is hopefully the ability to
bridge disparate systems, communications protocols and interfaces (in the
broad sense of this term).

	If the world were 100% java there would be less need for XML solutions to
interoperability ... all objects would talk to eachother in RMI and
serialize themselves as java objects ... and theoretically all systems would
interoperate - right?

	I doubt this will be reality in my lifetime and at least for what I can
forsee as the future, there will be lots of good work connecting and
bridging legacy (and new :-) systems. XML is poised to play an important
role in this critical activity.

	No XML cannot solve this problem itself, nor can java, hence it remains
important that XML solutions bridge programming languages and wire
protocols. XML-RPC is a step in the direction of bridging wire protocols.

	I suggest that modeling the (IDL type) interface is of critical importance
for XML if it is to have any meaningful role in interfaces in general. Both
CORBA, COM and DCE-RPC are IDL based.

	Several XML IDL variants have been proposed. What we need out of XML IDL is
interoperability with COM,CORBA,DCE-RPC IDL. This will provide language
neutral XML based interoperability.


Jonathan Borden
JABR Technology
http://jabr.ne.mediaone.net

http://jabr.ne.mediaone.net/documents/sodl.htm
http://jabr.ne.mediaone.net/documents/sodl.dtd


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