Welcome!

AJAX & REA Authors: John Funnell, Bob Little, Kevin Hoffman, Maureen O'Gara, Onkar Singh

Related Topics: Java, SYS-CON MEDIA

Java: Article

"I Didn't Invent XML Dammit," Says Tim Bray

"There were 11 other people on the committee and a couple hundred more in the discussion group," he adds.
By Java News Desk
Article Rating:
January 10, 2004 12:00 AM EST
Reads:
 22,583
It's every geek's dream to be able to write such a message.

Tim Bray, Canadian technologist extraordinary, has finally had enough of being dubbed "the inventor of XML" - and accordingly wrote to a Slashdot thread yesterday to say: 


I didn't invent XML dammit (Score:5, Informative)
by tbray (95102) on Friday January 09, @07:10PM (#7934486)
There were 11 other people on the committee and a couple hundred more in the discussion group. Geez.
[ Reply to This ]  

"I was just going to suggest that somebody push you off a cliff, in case you feel like inventing something else," was the first (inevitably flippant) response by another Slashdot contributor. Followed by sundry cheap shots like "That's okay. I wouldn't admit to it either," "Sure... cast the blame on someone else." There was also the usual Slashdot wit - "wow, the inventor of XML reads Slashdot !"  

One realist chipped in with an almost sensible response:

"But if you're not 'The Inventor of XML' then we don't have a simplistic tag for you.
Without such a tag, you cease to exist for much of the world! We can't have that!"

But the last word in the thread went to the following post, referring to Bray's protestations that he was but one of many behind XML: 

"Imagine a Beowulf cluster of XML creators!"
(Ungggh, I can't believe I just typed that... had to be done.)


The real last word deserves of course to go to Tim Bray himself. What is he, if not the inventor of XML? The answer is as follows:

"I serve as a member of the World Wide Web Consortium's XML Working Group and have co-edited the XML 1.0 and XML Hyperlinking specifications through their first several drafts, with an interlude of having been temporarily axed under pressure from Microsoft, because of my relationship with Netscape. I am the editor of The Gilbane Report, Technical Editor of XML.com, and a Seybold Fellow."

 

Published January 10, 2004 – Reads 22,583
Copyright © 2004 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
Syndicated stories and blog feeds, all rights reserved by the author.

More Stories By Java News Desk

JDJ News Desk monitors the world of Java to present IT professionals with updates on technology advances, business trends, new products and standards in the Java and i-technology space.

Comments (0)

Share your thoughts on this story.

Add your comment
You must be signed in to add a comment. Sign-in | Register

In accordance with our Comment Policy, we encourage comments that are on topic, relevant and to-the-point. We will remove comments that include profanity, personal attacks, racial slurs, threats of violence, or other inappropriate material that violates our Terms and Conditions, and will block users who make repeated violations. We ask all readers to expect diversity of opinion and to treat one another with dignity and respect.