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Subject:Re: XML -- where's the beef? From:David Neeley <dbneeley -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Sun, 03 Jun 2001 03:21:00 -0500
Kevin,
There seems to be a great deal of confusion over the role of the various
iterations of XML. Like HTML, XML is a subset of SGML--however, for two
entirely different purposes. Perhaps I am missing something from your posts
on this topic?
An "XML Viewer" by itself makes little sense, since XML by itself gives no
direct hints of display or layout. Therefore, the concept of "style sheets"
just doesn't apply to XML.
Coupled either with HTML or XSL, however, you have both meaningful content
and layout. The "economical way" to use CSS with XML, therefore, is to use
it with one of these two display methodologies.
In my state of ignorance--er, uh, "knowledge" of XML as applied to
technical writing, the strongest case can be made for reusable components.
That is, a document can be composed of elements each of which can be used
in many other documents--and all can be updated simultaneously when some
facet of that element changes.
In my opinion, those who believe they cannot find time to convert existing
document streams to XML are precisely those who should be seriously looking
at doing so---coupled with adopting a document management repository such
as Documentum or one of the others.
By going through the pain of conversion, they benefit greatly by freeing
their writers to focus on content rather than the endless fight for
formatting issues that most of us go through in traditional shops. When
this occurs, everyone benefits.
Another advantage to this approach is that you can move to a continuous
release schedule, if you wish, where upgrades and changes can be
incorporated into the document base as soon as they are ready.
Finally, huge savings in internationalization costs can be realized, as
only those elements that are changed need to be translated again. I have
been told that Hewlett Packard saved around $6 Million the first year they
implemented an XML/Documentum solution.
I hope this helps.
David
At 12:00 AM 5/31/2001 -0700, you wrote:
Well, John and Darren, I guess that was my point.
XML was being touted as a combination of the
power and flexibility of SGML with the ease
and convenience of HTML.
We seem to be agreeing, then, that it's come
out as a back-room tool, and not something
that will ever see the end-user light of day.
Certainly not an upgraded HTML replacement.
HTML will live on, bristling with more and more
plug-ins and extensions, as the user interface
of the web. XML will live behind the scenes,
but will still need to be converted/exported
out to "standard-of-the-day... whatever-day-
today-is" HTML... plus ActiveX and/or Flash
and/or MPEG9. Nobody's likely to mass-market a
viewer because the very power and flexibility
of XML makes it too variable. There's no economical
way to make an equivalent of HTML+CSS... or
there's no gain to be had from doing it, when
HTML+CSS plus some plug-ins already exist.
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