XML standards coherency and so forth

[David LeBlanc]

I've been following this thread, and had some questions and observations.
Excuse me if they're naive.

Firstly, the idea of xml needing a "killer app". I thought xml _is_ the
killer app? It sure seems to be being adopted as fast of or in advance of
released standards for a lot of different products (Ms Word's adoptation of
xml in it's next release comes to mind as a non-web product).

Secondly, this notion of cohesion of standards. This I tend to agree on.
They all seem to be a bit out of focus with respect to each other -
thinking primarily about xml vs. xsl. I also keep in mind that xml as the
killer app for sgml is something in the neighborhood of 2 years old and the
actual spec (xml) is just coming up on it's first birthday.

Third, about patterns etc. Um... isn't a dtd a pattern for a
collection/class of documents that adhere to that dtd if they are valid
instances of it?

I recall when rdms' where the ugly step children due to the overhead their
use entailed and a lack of understanding of their benefits etc. Now they
are the entrenched majority trying to fend off the next inovation and
maintain the status quo. Deja vu all over again.

Now, permit me to digress a bit. Having been studying and working with xml
for the last 18 months or so, it seems to me this market is coming together
very slowly. There are not yet any decent (at least not inexpensive) tools
out for the  average consumer-programmer that seem worth a darn. I
implemented a small xml application for a commercial product, and we where
unable to find usable off the shelf tools at any (reasonable) cost. Ditto
for commercial C++ drop in parsing tools.

Sincerely,

Dave LeBlanc

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