Fulfilling the Promise of XML-based Office Suites?

Posted by Cliff on Monday September 22, 2003 @12:36PM from the a-golden-opportunity-for-innovation dept.

brentlaminack asks: "Almost a year ago Tim Bray of XML fame said 'when the huge universe of MS Office documents becomes available for processing by any programmer with a Perl script and a bit of intelligence, all sorts of wonderful new things can be invented that you and I can't imagine.' Now that MS has dropped the ball on the XML Office front, and StarOffice has fulfilled its XML promise, where are all those 'wonderful new things?' Is anybody out there writing Perl/Java/whatever programs to take advantage of StarOffice XML? Could this be an opportunity for Free/Open/Libre software to leapfrog MS Office in real productivity as XML proponents have promised all along?" What kinds of new and wonderful things can you come up with?

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XML is no silver bullet by PissingInTheWind · 2003-09-22 12:46 · Score: 0, Flamebait

And also it sucks to work with.

I still can't understand why people invest so much time and money into that half-assed idea that is XML.

Better alternatives have existed for a long time.

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How about XML to troff by DrSkwid · 2003-09-22 13:07 · Score: 0, Flamebait

and go full fucking circle

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XML for Office is overrated by tjstork · 2003-09-22 13:18 · Score: 0, Flamebait

It's an overrated system with way too many features and having it be scriptable should be held up as proof of that.

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Re:Well... by woozlewuzzle · 2003-09-22 14:13 · Score: 1, Flamebait

I thought the whole idea of XML was that it was self-documenting? So what will be the next big thing to save the world?