Electronic dissertations library

Electronic Dissertations Library

XML: the future of web markup?, by Elliot Pritchard

(DON'T) BELIEVE THE HYPE

Many people think that in terms of web-technology, XML is going to be the 'next big thing'. Given the amount of press that it has generated, it seems as if it is already on its way to achieving that status. But how much of the praise that we encounter should we take at face value, and how much should we take with a pinch of salt? There seem to be two particular strains of XML-faith. The first says: 'XML is going to happen, so it is wise to prepare.' The other: 'XML will revolutionise the Web. Praise be.'

XML IS GOING TO HAPPEN

XML has, of course, in one sense already 'happened'. It is not just sitting in someone's mind waiting to be heard. It is not work-in-progress waiting to be finished. It has achieved the official status of a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Recommendation. It is not just sitting on the shelf either. Freter (d) tells us that "the world has responded to XML. Go to any trade show or conference associated with publishing, documents, or the internet (and intranets or extranets), and you will see vendor upon vendor pledging or even demonstrating support for XML." One cannot surf the Web without coming across such pledges of allegiance. Or across announcements about new XML parsers, or editors, or projects. But what does not tend to come across are web-sites that actually use XML. That is, after all, what XML is for. And until that is the case, we cannot say that XML has conclusively 'happened' yet.

What are we waiting for? Well, associated specifications such as XSL, XLink, and XPointer have yet to achieve recommendation-status. But none of these will change vastly between now and that time. The real wait is for browser-support. Version 5.0 of Microsoft Internet Explorer offers partial support, but both Microsoft and their rival company have pledged full XML support in the next version of their browsers. Dave Rothschild, Vice President of Client Products at Netscape, is quoted in World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) (10 February 1998 - c) as saying: "As a leader and believer in the open standards process...we believe XML is an exciting technology." Microsoft, who's XML implementation-efforts began sooner than their competitors, have plans for XML beyond just their next browser. Bill Gates, head of Microsoft, tells us that "Office is going to support XML...I think people really should pay attention to XML" ( Gates (6 October 1997)). This is big news. As Hogan says, "the announcement by Bill Gates that future versions of Microsoft Office will support XML virtually assures its broad adoption."

So while XML has not 'happened' yet, and some people have begun to become suspicious as to whether it will ever do so, the immense amount of faith in this technology is bound to translate into its actual application. As Sharpe suggests, "when a technology has the blessing of the W3C and is endorsed by hundreds of industry participants, including such formidable players as Microsoft and Oracle, you can be sure it is here to stay." While its success seems inevitable, the real question one should be asking is: what will the scale of that success be? Okay, people are going to implement XML. But how many?

THE XML REVOLUTION

Some consider that XML is not only going to 'happen' but that it is going to take over the Web. It will instigate the Web's 'second-coming'. These prophets of revolution often utter phrases as "XML is going to be as big as the Web itself" (Eckart Walter, product manager for Netscape, quoted in Krantz (10 November 1997)) or "XML is the future of the web" (STEP Sturtz Electronic Publishing GmbH). Such enthusiasm has its place. The more hype that is generated, the more people will hear of XML, the more XML will be implemented. But what exactly are we promised in this revolution?: "The impact of XML will be nothing short of revolutionary...the impact of this revolution will be as dramatic as the creation of the Internet itself...Information overload will give way to dynamic, targeted, granular and personal information manipulation. The Internet will be transformed from a massive unstructured, unmanaged and cumbersome collection of documents, into a structured, interactive, navigable and useful part of our everyday lives" (Hogan).

The incredible changes promised in this quote seem like little more than a nice dream. The problem? The above theory seems to presuppose that once XML comes into use, everyone will use it. An entire Web coded in XML would certainly be dramatically different from the current Web, but the current Web is not about to transform itself overnight. Those prepared to put the extra effort into XML coding are bound to reap its benefits. But it seems foolish to blindly expect that everyone will make that extra effort. Let us have faith in XML. By all means let us get excited about it. But let us not expect a miracle.

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