facts, conclusions, and exhortations re XML (long)

[Jelks Cabaniss]

Steven R. Newcomb wrote:

> I ran across more evidence of Microsoft's anticompetitive behavior
> recently.  Most of you probably already knew about it.  XPath, as
> implemented by Microsoft, provides access to the first node of any
> nodelist as the zeroeth node (the node in the list that is addressed
> by an array index value of 0), while the relevant W3C draft requires
> it to be the first (index value of 1) node.

"XPath as implemented by Microsoft", do you have a link or two about this?  A
lot of folks I know are drooling for MS to implement the new XPath and XSLT
Recommendations, yet you're saying not only have they already done it, but
they've deliberately sabotaged it!  ?

> One way to pay taxes is to be forced to buy new software every few
> years.  But what if the services that the taxes are supposed to pay
> for are suboptimal, or distributed unfairly or unwisely?  What if the
> tax collectors line their own pockets with obscene amounts of money
> and power, at the worldwide public's involuntary expense?

Government -- the real monopoly -- *forces* you to pay taxes.  You have *no
other choice*.  Try not paying them.  I don't know if your children will be
buying MS software or services in 50 years; I guarantee you their Government
will be taking (by force) "its share" ...

>   "Information owners and users of the world, unite!  Insist that the
>    software and systems you buy are built to guarantee that the value
>    of your information cannot be diminished merely by technological
>    change, or by the caprices of would-be world dominators (in Redmond
>    or elsewhere), or by the fortunes of your software providers.
>    Quite literally, you have nothing to lose but the product
>    differentiation barriers that jeopardize your economic security and
>    progress."

Lord.  I'd have to go with the Evil Capitalist Monopolistic Empire if the
alternative is based on rhetoric that gave us USSRs and Tiananmen Squares.

[There are *some* at MS who get it, especially with regard to XML.  (That
doesn't include the last FrontPage, Office, or ASP teams :).  It's a constantly
changing company -- if you want to "reform" it, give it competition and "vote"
with your dollars.  Microsoft listens to competition; too bad the previous
competition was Netscape.]


/Jelks




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