[mpyne]

> I call mine Dotcom Bubble Chain.

It may or may not surprise you to find out that the U.S. Navy came ->this<- close to trying to standardize all data storage and data interchange on XML, in 2018, so that we could use XSLT and other XML technologies so that they could "Enable maximum use of commercial products built to this standard", "Improve cybersecurity at the data element layer by using the XML Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) protocol", and "Enable compression of data using the XML EXI specification for efficient bandwidth usage over limited satellite communication channels".

[mwattsun]

> in 2018

That's quite a lag. Peak XML was probably 2000 if I recall correctly. That said, XSLT is pretty cool from a language standpoint. I wouldn't want to program in it all day anymore than I'd want to program all day in Brainfuck, but you have to admire the weirdness of it.

[davidgerard]

have coded actual XSLT, I assure you that Turing completeness is a curse

[ryan_lane]

Nah, they've been at that since at least 2005, when I worked there, and I'm pretty sure it was in their guidelines for years at that point. My guess is that they still have that in their guidelines.

For the most part, when doing a procurement, you'd just check a box that the software supported XML in some form (and many vendors added some stupid XML feature, even if their software didn't have a need for it at all), and it would satisfy that requirement.

[mpyne]

I assure you the 2018 effort was separate and deliberate. Read the NAVADMIN yourself if you wish, https://www.mynavyhr.navy.mil/Portals/55/Messages/NAVADMIN/N...

The Navy (and wider DoD) had also been pushing XML-based technologies earlier, of course, but that's less damning when it was happening when the entire IT industry was pushing those technologies.