XML Update

Dave Megginson, Ottawa's Man on the W3C and guy behind SAX (dare we say, the SAX Man?), was as always a lively and interesting speaker. This time he did it without the cooperation of the slide projector. He asked the audience how many people had read all of the W3C Recommendations. No one had. How many had read all of the XML-related Recommendations? No one. Including Megginson. And for that matter, including yours truly. The point being, there is so much published and at such a fast pace that it's very difficult for mortal humans to keep up. He indicated that ideas seem to bubble up from the vendors, rather than coming forth from some grand architectural scheme.

Megginson described the various XML-related specifications, with the disclaimer that this wasn't necessarily the W3C view. In his view, the core language specifications are XML 1.0, Namespaces in XML, and XML Information Set. This last is a Working Draft that describes the general data model behind what XML processor needs to tell an application, for example, about the elements of the document. He lumped together everything else as "accessory specifications": CSS, XSL, DOM, XML Schema, XLink, XPath, XPointer, XSLT, Fragments, Canonical XML, and XQL. (For the record, I see the core specifications being XML 1.0, XSL/XSLT, and XLink, XPath, XPointer. I would include the DOM if it weren't for the fact that it applies to HTML as well as XML.)

Megginson hinted that an announcement would be forthcoming about a change in W3C XML Working Groups. Indeed, on September 14, 1999, Jon Bosak announced the third phase of XML development:

Phase III, which officially began 13 September 1999, continues the XML Linking and XML Schema Working Groups and creates an XML Core Working Group to continue the work of the former XML Infoset, Syntax, and Fragments WGs and provide a forum for further work on XML namespaces. It also adds an XML Query Working Group tasked with the development of an XML query language and provides for the creation of an XML Packaging WG when work on the other specifications reaches a point where resources can be devoted to it. As in Phase II, the XML Activity is managed by an XML Coordination Group....

With regard to XML Schema Working Group, Megginson made the disappointing observation that this a long way from completion, despite W3C's now public prediction of a Proposed Recommendation in 1999. On the other hand, new versions of the Structures and Datatypes specs were released on September 24th, so maybe David was too pessimistic?

Megginson also emphasized that just because the W3C issues a Recommendation, it doesn't necessarily follow that any vendor will implement in any particular time period. Certainly, CSS1 and CSS2 are examples of this, not to mention full support for XML in browsers.

Scope of this Review
What Happened at XML World?
XML and EDI