Dear Final Debug: Is XML going to replace HTML? When?
Final Debug Responds: In late 1998, many seasoned tech observers suggested that XML, the Extensible Markup Language derived from SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language), would swiftly and smoothly unseat the current HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) as the way Web pages are created, distributed and experienced. It’s still an extremely promising set of technologies and is farther along then it was even a year ago.
Yet XML is far from ready to take over the Web. Let’s look at where it is and what remains to be done.
As Java and Javascript adherents will acknowledge reluctantly, not much can happen with a new Web technology until the standard that defines it is bulletproof. Yet the XML standard is far from complete, thus slowing down the development of tools to support it. (Right now the only browser that comes close to accepting the XML 1.0 spec is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 5.0; Netscape will support it, too, if it ever releases the year-late Navigator 5.)
Basic elements of the standard, such as XML querying, are still in early stages. There are still profound incompatibilities between XML and RDF (Resource Description Framework), a competing standard being shepherded by the same standards group, the World Wide Web Consortium.
Despite this uncertainty, the tools are improving. The latest iteration of XMetal includes more robust COM functionality. Both XMLWriter and XMLPro show promise on the editors front. Similarly, parsers and management tools are emerging, often from one-person companies and individuals playing with XML in their free time. But the process is slow — for example, Microsoft’s XML Notepad hasn’t been updated in approximately 18 months.
There are some good integration projects, with Java, Perl and Python most prominent, but no single overarching structure under which all these tools can coexist peacefully and productively. Perhaps the most impressive tool out now is James Clark’s Expat, a parser written in C that offers XML support to the Mozilla browser and the scripting language PHP.
However, standards remain an overwhelming issue, particularly on the e-commerce side.
Microsoft’s BizTalk is only slightly less onerous than what you’d expect from a Microsoft standard. Competitors ebXML and XML/EDI are not funded as well and are less developed.
As Expat shows, the development of XML, like all other winning Web technologies, will be a bottom-up process. This results in better software but a slower adoption process. Perhaps that’s an acceptable tradeoff.
