Re: Web apps on the AS/400 -- MIDRANGE-L

Pete,

I bow to your definition of a "standard".  At the same time, you
essentially prove the point that I failed to make.  Although there may
be a standard in it's syntax, there is no standard in it's usage.

IBM, Sun, Microsoft, Netscape are in the business of providing software
to "facilitate" XML just as they "facilitate" HTML.  But what I'm
talking about is the actual usage between
Boeing/GM/Ford/Mobil/Mom&PopMfg and their suppliers.

Because, as you state, there is no industry standard usage, so IMHO
anarchy will rule and whether you use XML or the gazillion different EDI
formats becomes six of one or a half dozen of the other.

So much for "standards".

Sorry to sound so cynical, but my experience has been that each and
every electronic trading partner has the "my way or the highway"
attitude so each exchange has unique characteristics and I don't see how
XML solves this problem.  In the big picture of a complete system, the
use of XML vs classic EDI formats vs mandated custom formats is a change
to one import and one export program out of thousands of programs.

Who knows what tomorrow will hold.  Maybe we can solve the whole "how do
I get data into an Excel spread sheet" by using XML.  I just hope that
it's the same as passing data to Lotus123 or Quattro or Visicalc (that
last one was my attempt at humor), but I doubt it.


Pete Hall wrote:
> 
> 
> Au contraire. XML is absolutely a standard. It is explicitly documented by
> W3C, and the standards (they're called recommendations, but they're
> standards nevertheless) are actually being respected and followed as
> quickly as possible by Microsoft, Sun, IBM, and Netscape to name a few. The
> documents are at http://www.w3.org/XML/. The difficulty is not with the
> standard, but rather with the schema that are applied to specific
> applications. These are not standard, but they are moving in that
> direction. Biztalk (www.biztalk.org) for instance is a repository for many
> of the current attempts. It would be a lot simpler if somebody could just
> publish a schema for whatever and everybody would follow it. Obviously that
> will never happen. It would be nice if industry wide standards bodies would
> materialize and do the grunt work, but that too seems to be wishful
> thinking. I can't even generate enough interest where I work to investigate
> the possibility, even though it would be very good for company image and
> prestige to be a member of the standards body.
>
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