XML is done

As I continue to examine what it is that has put me into a year long blogging lull, I want to take a closer look at the things I used to write about. First up is XML.

I've been a big proponent for the use of XML and Syncato was an attempt to show the possibilities for what can be done when you build a system with XML data running from top to bottom. My experiments in that area have been quite successful, building and using Syncato for the last two years have definitely convinced me of the value in this line of exploration. However, that's really an exploration in microcontent systems, semi-structured data and building a unified data model more than it is at pushing XML technology. It just happens that XML technology provided the most convenient toolkit for accomplishing what I envisioned.

My XML technology toolkit primarily consists of three things, XML 1.0 (without DTDs), XPath 1.0 and XSL-T 1.0. Occasionally I'll use namespaces, but I really try to avoid it. Most of the other XML specs, especially XML Linking, XML Schema and XQuery are simply too complicated for their own good. And worse, with the introduction of XML Schema the W3C started a generation of new specs based around the concept of strongly typed XML. That's a concept that in my mind completely destroys the value of using XML. It would be OK if you could just take XML Schema or leave it, but it's now getting baked into the core of other technologies like XQuery, and all the WS-* crap which makes all that stuff an absolute pain in the ass to deal with. It's also causing developers to adopt the strongly typed XML concept and create system of despicable fragility, when they should be leveraging the flexibility of XML to build systems of surprising resilience.

So it seems that for me, the XML technology stack is done. Even though some of the new features added in XPath 2.0 and XSL-T 2.0 would be extremely useful to have, in fact REALLY useful. The complexity introduced by the specs relationship with W3C XML Schema is going to keep support out of just about every toolset I work with. Right now I'm working on projects in PHP, Perl, Python and Ruby, none of which has any support for XPath 2.0 or XSL-T 2.0 and it seems likely won't gain support for it anytime in the near future. So thanks to the W3C and the abomination that is XML Schema, XML is now in practical usage, done, and in many ways that's too bad.

Posted by Kimbro Staken