XML vs. HTML

[Chris Gray]

I'm on your side when it comes to enthusiasm for XML.

I was, in the first instance, responding to the perception that XML was
being offered up as a panacea that everyone *has* to learn. I was trying
to point out the difference between the talk that The-Next-Big-Thing tends
to get and the much more humble attitude of those actually doing the
development. XML is a tool with a purpose and a need, not the answer to
everything. I've seen people who are not in the least intimidated by
technology alienated by this kind of unqualified enthusiasm for something
they would otherwise be receptive to.

Is XML here to stay? Most likely. Will user-friendly tools appear? There
pretty much here already. Does every web developer need to learn XML? No,
but a lot will benefit from learning it.

Chris Gray
Computer Systems Technician
Library Systems
University of Waterloo

On Sun, 17 May 1998, Karen G. Schneider wrote:

> Chris wrote, "the explicit question *is*: Is XML inevitable? But the
> implicit question is: Do I (random library webmaster) have to learn XML?
> <IMG SRC="everest.jpg" ALT="XML Learning Curve">"
> 
> Again, the point I am trying to make is that XML will not take off until it
> has a tool that makes it easy for the generalist or near-generalist to
> apply to many publishing scenarios--but that I anticipate this tool
> appearing, or, in another scenario, "child of XML" appearing (anyone
> remember graphical gopher?  maybe that's XML... but it was still
> foreshadowed the Web as we know it). The people who were enthusiastic about
> the Web during the era of the CERN line-mode browser were only half-right.
> However, their enthusiasm was not unbridled, but prescient, nor were they
> uncautious, but farsighted.  The library profession overall, on the other
> hand, has been a late adopter of networked services, and that has not been
> to its credit.  I still recall a librarian saying to me--and this was only
> a couple of years ago--that he was waiting for this Internet thing to pass.
> _________________________________________________________
> Karen G. Schneider |  kgs at bluehighways.com http://www.bluehighways.com
> Author: A Practical Guide to Internet Filters, Neal Schuman, 1997 
> Director, Garfield Library of Brunswick, NY  garfield at crisny.org
> Garfield on the Web: http://www.crisny.org/not-for-profit/garfield
> Information is hard work
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>