On Sat, Dec 01, 2001 at 01:13:24PM +0000, Dave Hodgkinson wrote: > XML, I get. Having tight, defined data formats is a good thing. Being > able to transform that data for many different media is also a good > thing but the hoops you have to jump through to get any results at all > seem daunting.
I think that sums up the whole XML debacle pretty well. * W3C => committee of bickering vendors dominated by Microsoft who really Don't Have a Clue. * XML => pile of festering, fetid turdage, based on a markup langyage designed in the 60's and re-invented, badly, by a committee of bickering vendors etc. (see W3C above) * Microsoft XML => pile of festering, etc., (see XML above) which will be "80-90% compatiblei" with regular XML (paraphrasing Microsoft's words, but I can't find the original quote now). > I shall stick to the Template Toolkit and wait on Matt > Sargeant to produce something pragmatic. The secret is to know when to use XML (occasionally) and when not to use it (mostly). Combine with your favourite tools (all Rah! Sargeant) and ingest with plenty of water. <variable><mileage owner="you"/></variable> # bollocks to XML! > Overall, this was too far removed from anything I know or want to do > to be of any use to me. Sit down, Dave. Have a cuppa. Take the weight off your feet. You've been put through a lot of stress. Try to remove XML from your mind. Don't let the XSL madness get to you. Life's too short. Let me tell you about the World..... (wibbly wobbly visuals cue fade to Jackanory) In this world there are two kinds of people. Packers and Mappers. Packers blindly follow the rules. They design complex, highly regular, highly structured, extensive, universal, all-bow-down-and-chant-my-name solutions which are clever but ugly. Butt ugly. They use Java because Sun told them to. They use XML because they have to work around the limitations of Java. And because they heard it was the "industry standard". Mappers are people who engage their brains. They are creative and innovative, and don't mind punching Francis Rossi in the face (or otherwise upsetting the Status Quo). They are people like Larry who sometimes break the rules and make things irregular and wonky because people like things like that. Packers do what they're told. They use XML, they use Java, they use Microsoft Word for Windows and PowerPoint. Mappers use Perl. It's not regular. It's not "simple" (like (Lisp())). It's not "Industry Standard, Enterprise Edition Buzzword Compliant". It's useful. Far too useful for all that. So don't worry Dave if you think you don't get it. You do. No really, you've got it. It's the rest of the World that is fucked up. Honest. Oops. I opened my mouth and a rant fell out. Sorry. A
