When my wife, Julie, asks me what I'm writing about in my column, I usually offer a much too detailed answer, greeted with a "that's nice" from her. When I began describing XML, I said that it makes it easier for organizations to agree on standards for the exchange of data. "You want agreement?" she responded. "Get those kids to agree to go to bed."
Here's something else no one can agree on--the intentions of our friends in Redmond regarding XML. Some decry Microsoft's use of XML in Office 2000 as a harbinger of the emerging standard's imminent ruin, but I fail to see what the fuss is all about. Sure, Microsoft can be, and often is, an 800-pound gorilla, but XML is a strong standard. If Microsoft can use it to solve problems, it only strengthens the argument to use XML for challenges closer to home. I don't worry about the future of IP just because Microsoft uses it to send SMB or NetMeeting streams. Of course, the reason I don't fret about IP's future is that its control is spread across many hands.
XML is similar in that a number of companies have competing XML parsers. XML is self-describing, and any schema that Microsoft creates should be verifiable by the XML community. Should be are the operative words. In the worst-case scenario, XML itself is balkanized by different vendor camps. A more likely outcome is that XML goes into widespread use intact, but the fight moves to different visions of how XML is used.
Microsoft uses XML because it solves problems. New releases of productivity applications adversely affect users by basically breaking workflows based on document interchange. The potential for XML-based documents is that, after 15 years, we finally won't break workflows by introducing version-induced incompatibilities. But XML is a technology, not a panacea, and using it does not guarantee insulation from application changes.
Anyone who needed to leverage the content of these documents had two choices: Know the file format in raw form or use VBA-style objects to access them. Now a third, perhaps better engineered alternative has emerged--integrate an XML parser into your application and parse the document as you would any XML source. This option has the added advantage of location- and platform-independence.
Microsoft's use of XML benefits users, who will survive upgrades without losing the ability to process documents. It benefits developers, who will be able to leverage those document types in more situations. And it benefits Microsoft, which can focus on adding features and fixing problems other than document conversions. The XML community is widespread and deep enough to vigilantly point out departures.
Now, if you harbor ideas about a new XML schema for word-processing documents or slide presentations, you might have a problem. Microsoft's overwhelming market share in productivity applications means it has a lot of weight when it comes to using XML to represent those types of documents. Note that I said using the standard, not creating a standard. It is also reasonable to assume that Boeing will have a lot to say when defining how XML can be used to describe airplane parts, or Amazon.com will have a strong idea of how it would like to see books represented.
The vendors have invested in both XML technologies and skill sets. They have sat on the committees and achieved consensus on XML schemas for different objects in their domain. For the first time, vendors and the enterprise are using the same Web, XML and object technologies. Your priorities are clear: Include XML tools in upcoming budgets and XML training in upcoming education plans. Most important, get involved with the players and process for XML schema definitions in your industry.
Brian Walsh is founder of bwalsh.com, a Portland, Ore., consulting firm specializing in Internet and client/server product strategies, development and testing. Send your comments on this column to him at brian@bwalsh.com.
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When my wife, Julie, asks me what I'm writing about in my column, I usually offer a much too detailed answer, greeted with a "that's nice" from her. When I began describing XML, I said that it makes it easier for organizations to agree on standards for the exchange of data. "You want agreement?" she responded. "Get those kids to agree to go to bed."
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