RE: Perspective: XML's ticking time bomb

["Chen, Weijing" <wchen@tri.sbc.com>]

Juergen>>
So to really make a difference, vendors have to ensure that the human
user interface and the programmatic interface are developed at the
same time and are consistent. This can be achieved by e.g. layering
the CLI on top of a programmatic interface (or the other way round) or
by having the CLI and any programmatic interface go through a common
"resource manager".  The key observation here is that timeliness and
consistency of the interfaces is basically a software architecture
problem. And to solve this problem, throwing in XML won't help.


[Chen, Weijing] I had wished that architecture you mentioned would happen
for 10 years.  Unfortunately, none of the vendors we have talked/worked are
doing that.  They gave us the CLI/syslog or TL1 in the day one, and
reluctant to change ever after.  Therefore the best hope for us now is using
XML, which is more structure-oriented than CLI/syslog/TL1 (potentially),
with largest common denominator to limit a lot of unnecessary variations in
current CLI/syslog, TL1, or text-based interface.


Juergen>>
In other words, in order for a new XML based technology to be really
successful, it is crucial that vendors are willing to rethink whether
their internal software architecture and development processes work
well. If XML will just be treated as another additional programmatic
interface, then the same problems we have with other programmatic
interfaces will show up down the road.


[Chen, Weijing] What you said may very well happen again with XML.  XML is
no guarantee that everything will be fine.  But if we are carefully with
sober mind, we may make a step further toward the goal.



Regards,

Weijing Chen

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