10 Years of XML and More Still Coming
Over the weekend XML 1.0 turned 10 years
old from the day it was first accepted as a W3C recommendation. It started as a subset of SGML that allowed
generic document content to be served and processed over HTTP. It's now used for everything, including the
kitchen sink.
XML 1.0 included a number of quirks, such as a large and
complicated language production that created a custom subset of Unicode for
defining names. XML 1.1 tried to fix
these quirks but broke compatibility in the process, leading to its virtual
death due to lack of adoption. The world
still works off of XML 1.0. That's why last
week a new proposed recommendation came out to define a Fifth Edition of XML 1.0.
