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Technology Stocks : How high will Microsoft fly? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: dybdahl who wrote (52407)	10/30/2000 7:03:57 AM
From: Jordan A. Sheridan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Dybdahl; Here's a link to the XML developers site on MSDN. Based on your message, I'd suggest that you aren't aware of the vast majority of what XML can do...Perhaps this site can help clear things up. msdn.microsoft.com Regards; Jordan

To: dybdahl who wrote (52407)	10/30/2000 11:36:21 PM
From: Dan Spillane	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

The idea with XML isn't to provide yet another alternative to send data--it is to provide the optimal one. For each of the formats you named (HTML, PDF, etc.), I could name at least one disadvantage. So perhaps think of XML as the next-generation way to send data. In other words, if people are agreeing on a de-facto format which will proliferate all over the web, it should be a well-planned format. In fact, this aspect of XML is enough to make it the choice protocol--it's designed to fit the job...it's not a hack. The concerns I have with XML...I discussed via phone with a friend at Microsoft today, on my way driving back from San Fran. These are data compression(the files are "fluffy"), and version control of DTDs and schema. Interestingly, I postulated that a "compressed" HTTP mechanism would be nice--and he told me such is in the works. I also thought of a mechanism for version control, and he said that was the very method they were thinking of (won't reveal it here)!

To: dybdahl who wrote (52407)	10/31/2000 8:14:56 AM
From: Bill Fischofer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74651

Re: Benefits of XML To understand why XML is important you have to look at where the net is headed, not where it is today. Today the net is dominated by people interacting with information--this is the "Stage I" net made possible by HTML. Tomorrow's "Stage II" net will be dominated by machine to machine interactions (see Neil Greshenfeld's seminal "When Things Start to Think"). In this world information content not just layout must be encoded in standard forms to allow for seamless interchange. This is what XML does. The transformation from encoded content to human-consumable form is actually done by XSL (the eXtensible Stylesheet Language) which enables information to adapt to the differing requirements of, for example, a full-featured browser on a PC vs. a PDA vs. a cellphone. It is only when information content is encoded in standard forms that true B2B ecommerce is possible. A shopping agent, for example, is interested in comparing prices and availability from multiple potential suppliers. First-generation EDI systems did this within closed networks whose members each reinvented the wheel and were mutually incompatible. XML-based schemas enable the same functions to be performed on an open basis which enables broad-based competition which drives efficiency and productivity to the benefit of all. Most people are familiar with the notion that data has overtaken voice as the dominant information flow over communications networks. What will emerge over the next few years is the realization that ultimately "human-free" data interchange will dominate the information flows of the 21st-century Internet. This is the market that XML has been designed to serve and is why it is rapidly becoming the cornerstone of the new net.