Alternatives to the W3C

[Didier PH Martin]

Hi Stephen,

Stephen said:
I prefer to say -- Netscape is reasonably stable, and IE is a moving target.

In any case, Netscape + IE + Opera now make up a sizeable but rapidly-
decreasing fraction of the browser market -- or haven't you noticed the
number of connected WebTV's, Palm Pilots, cell phones, and recently kitchen
appliances?

Didier replies:
Its a very valid point of view. As we all know the reality can be perceived
in different ways. For some, if there is no new updates or innovations then
it is stagnant, for others it is stable. The funny thing is that both
perceptions are right :-)

About WebTv, yes I saw that the number is very very slowly increasing, palm
pilots and cell phone barely noticeable on the radar. However, for cell
phones, the numbers may be different in Europe. I am still digging to get
the numbers for Europe. And about kitchen appliances I just noticed that my
refrigerator sent me an ICQ message saying that it is empty and that I
should go do some shopping tonight :-)))).

Stephen said:
And the couple of hundred million Linux users who are going to be coming
online in places like China and India over the next few years aren't going
to be using Microsoft products, either.

Didier replies:
This is an interesting remark. In fact, the countries that you mention are
practicing software copy on a real industrial scale. Now that free software
is available, they get, it, study it, use it and will probably, in the 21
century, become strong silicon valley competitors. So, you are right that
Linux will probably find its biggest market there, not Microsoft, Microsoft
software anyway just got copied there, not sold.

Stephen said:
The mapping from XML to HTML (using XSLT and so on) is properly applied on
the server.

Didier replies:
Yes but the real advantage of XML+XSLT is that the transformation can occurs
on the client. As long as there is a lot of HTML client out there, people
will still use stuff like ASP, JSP, Cold fusion etc.. to produce HTML form
data bases content, or simply dump to the browser the HTML file stored on
the server. The real incentive to use XML is if
a) most actual servers like the relational database, directory services or
indexing servers send their data in an XML format.
b) the rendition process is made at client site.

otherwise, we will still have the status quo. And off course that I know
that XML can be transformed with XSLT on the server, My refrigerator does
that before sending me messages on ICQ :-))) Seriously, when (a) and (b)
conditions will be fulfilled, then XML market share will increase.

Cheers
Didier PH Martin
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