{"id":505,"date":"2008-02-11T15:22:57","date_gmt":"2008-02-11T14:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/?p=505"},"modified":"2008-02-11T15:22:57","modified_gmt":"2008-02-11T14:22:57","slug":"tim-bray-marks-10-years-of-xml-weighs-into-microsoft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/505-tim-bray-marks-10-years-of-xml-weighs-into-microsoft.html","title":{"rendered":"Tim Bray marks 10 years of XML, weighs into Microsoft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sun’s Tim Bray, XML luminary, marks 10 years since XML 1.0 became a W3C recommendation (10th Feb 1998) with a post on his blog<\/a>: a history of the people behind XML which he explains was written ten years ago.<\/p>\n

Microsoft played an important role in the popularity of XML. I believe the company saw it as a counterweight to Java. Java was about application portability; XML was about data portability and application communication. With XML, Microsoft could do .NET and still live in a Java world.<\/p>\n

Back in 1997 there were fireworks at the W3C when Bray, who was co-editing the XML specification with C. Michael Sperberg-McQueen, joined Netscape as a consultant. Microsoft was worried, I guess because at the time Netscape was a big rival and Microsoft thought XML might be somehow twisted to give Netscape some advantage – a puzzling idea, in hindsight, but there it is. Anyway, Microsoft insisted that Bray be removed as co-editor; Bray protested and eventually a deal was struck which put Microsoft’s Jean Paoli alongside Bray and Sperberg-McQueen as XML co-editors.<\/p>\n

Maybe this incident explains Bray’s hostility towards the company:<\/p>\n

\n

Some of the people in this story are companies. Ned is Netscape and Mick is Microsoft … Mick is a domineering, ruthless, greedy, egotistical, self-centered, paranoid bastard. Whether or not he\u2019s actually a crook is, as they say, currently the subject of litigation; but he\u2019s not good company or a good friend. The ruthlessness and greed would not be so irritating (we swim, after all, in late-capitalist waters) were they not accompanied, at all times, by Mick\u2019s claim to speak not in his own interest, but selflessly on behalf of his millions of customers, whose needs only he understands. Thus, anyone who disagrees is conspiring against the interests of the world\u2019s computer users. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Perhaps in his position I would feel the same way. But is Microsoft innately more evil than other companies? I’m not convinced, though note another of Bray’s comments:<\/p>\n

\n

This isn\u2019t about technology any more, and certainly not people, it\u2019s business. The Internet business, for all the visionary rhetoric, has to do with nothing but money and power and executive ego. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Again, a little too extreme for me, but only a little. Interesting to reflect on in the context of, say, the OOXML vs ODF debate.<\/p>\n

Technorati tags: microsoft<\/a>, tim bray<\/a>, sun<\/a>, xml<\/a>, odf<\/a>, ooxml<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sun’s Tim Bray, XML luminary, marks 10 years since XML 1.0 became a W3C recommendation (10th Feb 1998) with a post on his blog: a history of the people behind XML which he explains was written ten years ago. Microsoft played an important role in the popularity of XML. I believe the company saw it … Continue reading Tim Bray marks 10 years of XML, weighs into Microsoft<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itwriting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}