[mgr86]

XML is pretty awesome. As a 12 year old in 1998 I remember being enthralled with it and my young mind imagined a lot of possibilities. But alas, I had no real use for it until xhtml, but even then...As the years passed I learned to drive and get the heck off my computer for a few years.

It wasn't until about a decade later when I finally got to use XML "for real". At my academic publishing job. One of my first real projects was having a set of academics analyze documents in a web application I built. Prior to that they were analyzing them by hand, were converted to SGML somewhere in Korea, and we would use omnimark to move them to XML and eventually a library application.

The XML community, the one's who haven't retired or passed on, have been more welcoming of the competition too. They went from XML is everywhere, to being able to return JSON from an XSLT. I am in a small shop, and so I wear many hats. But I am always satisfied when I get to work with XML, or craft an xsl/xq script that does exactly what I need. Additionally, the community as a whole is very helpful, and a bit more grey. Meaning, they are less likely to fall for trends and bullshit.

A bit disjointed, but ,in short, XML is awesome. Now only if they would move Balisage back to Montreal. I'm no fan of DC or virtual conferences.