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I think you're right on the money here. XML is going to follow a path similar
to what we saw for HTML. XML is currently a complex "specialty" skill, but
in time, various new tools will emerge that provide point, click, drag and drop
"Visual XML" UIs that enable writers to produce well-formed XML
documents and definitions without the need to code XML, just as we today
do not manipulate the codes that make up Word and FrameMaker documents.
Writers will need to learn the concepts behind structured documentation, but
will be able to build and edit their structured documents without having to
know or fiddle with code. On the downside, today's XML "experts" will
probably end up just like all those web designers who were making $100 an
hour during the dot-com boom and are now seeing web page production and
editing listed as requirements for DTP and office admin positions.
Gene Kim-Eng
"Phillip St. James" <saint0 -at- verizon -dot- net> wrote in message news:260228 -at- techwr-l -dot- -dot- -dot-
>
> So, without going into a long diatribe, I think that XML is neat. However,
> it is relatively obscure, overly complex, too "manual", and quite varied in
> its manifestations right now. It is destined to stay that way until it is
> either beefed up similarly within the majority of mainstream text editors or
> it evolves into a transparent or semi-transparent adjunct text editor
> interface that properly "converts" text on the fly, and on demand.
>
> In the meantime, I think that for the next few years XML will be seen and
> used, for example, like DHTML compared to HTML.
>
> Any comments? Am I wrong here?
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