[uriel]

> I've gotten the informal impression that incidental complexity (you know, complexity arising not from the problem but the solution) is a factor behind the hugeness of the XML ecosystem

You are absolutely correct.

As Phil Wadler put it: "The essence of XML is this: the problem it solves is not hard, and it does not solve the problem well."

It makes a trivial issue into a byzantine enterprise.

But, it has created a whole industry of 'experts', standard committees and other busybodies, so it must be good for the economy at least!