Next week's issue of InfoWorld includes an article on the new XML capabilities of Office 11. While researching the story, I interviewed the architect of XML in Office 11, Microsoft's Jean Paoli, one of the primary co-creators of XML. Here are some of his remarks. [Full story at InfoWorld.com]
Note: That article is my weekly column, and is a companion to another story that should go live later today. Phil Wainewright posted his thoughts on the column:
It is about time we had users defining XML schema rather than having to rely on an expert going away and modeling it (inevitably an imperfect procedure). But the experience of user-defined document templates in Word and the difficulties of propagating and then maintaining a corporate standard even at this elementary presentation level of document structure doesn't augur so well for the rapid creation of consistent, sharable XML DTDs and schema across the enterprise. Putting XML directly into the hands of the users is an important and necessary step, but it is only the beginning of the journey. [ Loosely Coupled]
Excellent points. It's a long road; this first step was way overdue; it creates a thicket of issues around usability and standards (e.g., the open-yet-proprietary WordML). But as Phil says, it's about time. Let's roll up our sleeves and get to work on this stuff.
Former URL: http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2002/11/15.html#a508