Closing Keynote - Murray-Rust Roasts Us
December 20, 1999
Chemist Peter Murray-Rust was one of the earliest XML advocates.
In 1997, he released the first XML-capable browser called
JUMBO,
one of the first XML vocabularies, the
Chemical Markup Language (CML),
and formed the first XML mailing list,
xml-dev.
He was therefore an appropriate person to provide a closing keynote for XML'99.
His presentation was written in XML, XHTML, MathML, SVG, and CML.
Murray-Rust reviewed the W3C/XML timeline:
- 1993: Mosaic proved anyone can publish
- 1994: 1st WWW conference (Geneva), 2nd WWW conference (Chicago); W3C formed
- 1995: sgmls tool (James Clark); other free SGML tools
- 1996: XML Working Group formed
- 1997: xml-dev mailing list established
- 1998: XML 1.0 published; SAX created with over 100 contributors from xml-dev; more free tools
- 1999: numerous XML-related specifications; XML.org and BizTalk.org formed
One of Murray-Rust's
major points was that XML does not convey semantics (meaning) by itself.
That is, XML is a syntax that provides a way to encode messages and data,
but it does not solve the core issues of how semantics and ontologies are applied
to XML. We must bridge that gap. (We note that RDF, XML Schema, and Topic Maps will
be helpful in this regard.)
He quoted Brooks' Law: "Plan to throw the first one away. You will anyway."
This was in the context of saying that SGML is being replaced by XML,
HTML by HTML 4.0 and XHTML, DTDs by XML Schema, etc.
A new effort that Murray-Rust is spearheading is an on-line in depth XML instructional
series called
Virtual Learning Environment for XML
[no direct link as of this writing],
which will be made available in three modules that will require 20-30 hours per month.
XML/EDI: Issues, Ideas, Practical Constraints
What Happened at XML'99
Resources: XML'99 Coverage by XML.com
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