[jaaron]

If you believe his best point is that XML is not well-suited for RPCs then you've missed the point.

XML is good for exactly what it stands for: an extensible markup language. It's good for dealing with semi-structured data, especially when you have to deal with data from multiple domains.

Have you ever used SGML (other than HTML)? If so, then you'd likely agree that XML is a superior standard. But I'm guessing that you have not, because for some reason you believe that XML was created for data serialization.

DTDs and XSLT _are_ useful aspects of XML and I doubt the author in unaware of them. Rather the author assumed too much of the readers in understanding the history of XML and the nature of semi-structured data.