A more interesting question is 'Is XML on the web trending up or trending down?' Clearly, it is trending down. For data transfer applications, XML is losing ground to JSON because JSON is simply a better data transfer format. And XHTML has failed to displace HTML in the marketplace. The benefit of clientside validation has proven to not be a benefit. I think you can argue, and in fact I did argue, that because of W3C's adventures with XML, the web itself may not have a future. The browser has a lot of problems, the worst of which are the security problems that came with Netscape Navigator 2. That was 12 years ago, and there has been no progress since that time in fixing the fundamental problems. There have been lots of patches on top of patches. Nothing more. More info

Is JSON better than XForms? That's an apples and oranges argument. I am willing to predict that XForms + XQuery will become a powerful enterprise model for rich form content, because the enterprise is considerably more XML-centric than the consumer stack is. I'm willing to predict that JSON feeds to most mashups will likely end up being a mix of XML (primarily via feeds) and JSON for quite some time, though I'm inclined to suspect that AtomPub will likely tilt the balance of power towards XML in the long run. More info

Pat Eyler works about a block and a half from where I live in downtown SLC, UT, and yesterday we met up for lunch. Amongst our far reaching topics of conversation included the proper way to pronounce Rubinius. In case... More info

You can validate an XML file with a document type definition (DTD). DTDs use a formal grammer to describe the structure and syntax of compliant XML documents; they specify content and values allowed for the XML document. More info

Fabio Arciniegas' article on using object oriented design patterns in processing XML documents. Discusses four patterns: Command, Flyweight, Wrapper, and Iterator. More info

So for various reasons I've had the opportunity to get to know a lot of the folks who design, develop, deploy, market, and support the various offerings of Amazon Web Services, and it's because of this I found it funny... More info

In the Deploying Web services with WSDL series, Bilal will explore all major technical aspects of creating, deploying, and publishing Web services -- from Web Services Markup Language (WSDL), to Simple Object access Protocol (SOAP), and Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI) registries. Part 1 focuses on WSDL authoring: More info

I recently helped Khanderao Kand, one of Oracle's Fusion Middleware lead architects, co-author an article on the current state of OSGi. Here's an excerpt - ....The Open Services Gateway Initiative (OSGi) Alliance is working to realize the vision of a... More info

An article on XML.com describing three structural patterns for XML Schema: Composite, Abstract Model, and Peer Specialization. More info

Recently, I have been running into some problems with XML Serialization in VB.Net. I suppose this would apply to C# as well, but I don't do that. Anyway, at work, we've been trying to get ourselves integrated with Amazon.com. We're going to be selling our wares there. It's very exciting but VERY frustrating too. Amazon requires merchants to send up XML documents (feeds) to describe things like products, prices, inventory levels, etc... More info