Re: Web apps on the AS/400

["James W. Kilgore" <eMail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ken, Phil,

I love standards! There's so many to choose from. ;-)

XML -IS NOT- a documented standard.  Or maybe I should say that it -is-
documented, but it is not yet a -standard-.  It is a work in process
that is still under heavy debate.

IMHO, XML and JAVA are currently at the same stage that HTML was in
1996.  A great idea that had a controlling committee taking forever to
make up their mind and Netscape taking a leadership role by saying "damn
the committee, we want to implement tables".  Who knows where this new
leadership will come from.

Maybe if you are in the automobile manufacturing arena, GM or Ford or
Fiat will step up and tell all of their suppliers "use these particular
XML tags or eat dust" and every other automobile manufacturer will
follow suit in order to avoid having to make their own decision.  The
same may occur in banking, insurance, etc. and we will, some day,
finally have a gazillion different XML tags based upon the industry of
your trading partner, just like we have a gazillion different EDI
trading formats.  So much for "standards"!

As this thread continues, I would hope that the point that everyone gets
out of it is that we have choices.  There is no single solution for all
problems and situations.  Our tools are ever changing and improving.
Some tools never die (can we spell COBOL? the only -true- cross platform
programming language in the world which has had it's death bell ringing
longer than most of our careers)

Fads, let's see if Smalltalk or JAVA lives as long as RPG or COBOL.  Do
they have their place? You bet! Do they belong everywhere? I don't think
so.  I don't use a sledge hammer to hang a picture and I don't use a
tack hammer to tear down a wall.  Both are just tools in the box.

Ken.Slaugh@cm-inc.com wrote:
> 
> EDI had standards too and every solution deviated from 'the standard'.
> 


> 
> 
>                     "Hall, Philip"

> 
> > Have you considered using XML? Sounds like a perfect fit, and it's a
> > documented standard.
> 
> A slight but important correction: the language definition for XML is a
> documented standard, however the 'standards' for using (i.e the DTD's)
> leave
> a great deal to be desired.
> 
> --phil
>
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