Eric Maino

System.Brain.CoreDump();

Written in XML?

I am a little perturbed by the image that is posted on MS “What is .NET?” website. Now either I am just off on some other tangent in life or they should really re-word the first paragraph in this image, under web services:

I really do not agree that web services are written “in” XML, I warrant that they are written to provide XML and are designed to use XML, but written in XML? Any thoughts on this?

This image is linked from the following site: http://www.microsoft.com/net/basics/whatis.asp

Posted: Oct 14 2003, 01:27 PM by emaino | with 9 comment(s)

Comments

Steve said:

You actually read all their marketing fluff ;-). I agree its not really an accurate description...and I'm sure you could find many other examples of misleading wording on that site(as well as other MS sites). One thing witch I think MS has done poorly is in regards to the marketing for .NET. They've put all the buzzwords in the material, and slapped the .NET brand on everything which has led to a lot of confusion for a lot of "non-techie" people I've talked to. Hopefully, MS has learned from their mistakes and will do better next time around.
# October 14, 2003 1:57 PM

Julien CHEYSSIAL said:

I agree with you. I've been "fighting" a lot of customers way too long, trying to make them understand that XML is absolutely not a programming language ! Damn you customer ! XML is a simple and standard data storage file format, which allows to organize/structurize and give semantic to its data. An XML file is simply and just a text file ! That's it !

This is typically the kind of things MS should avoid... They're not doing any favor to anybody... Customers won't understand what's XML and IT Consultants, Teachers will have to struggle with them... This is surely a "Marking" guy who said that !
# October 14, 2003 2:00 PM

Julien CHEYSSIAL said:

By "Marking" I meant "Marketing" :) And I made many other faults, like "fighting WITH customers", "give semantic to THIS data".
# October 14, 2003 2:03 PM

Jerry Dennany said:

Hmm.. Do you really expect more from marketing junk? You aren't the target audience for this article - It's reserved for people who's eyes will glaze over if you tried to explain the technical details.
I actually appreciate this marketing fluff, because I can either direct PHB's to the material directly, or adapt it as needed.
It means a lot less work trying to sell technical solutions to those that _don't_ understand.
# October 14, 2003 2:12 PM

Eric Maino said:

Yes, I do tend to read and try and keep up on thier marketing material and everything else. As a student ambassasdor I am bombared with all sorts of questions from students and faculty and I try my best to be sure that I can adequately answer their questions when I am asked.
# October 14, 2003 2:13 PM

Randy H. said:

Semantics.
# October 14, 2003 2:52 PM

Shannon J Hager said:

I almost sent a CEO the link to that page 6 months or so ago, but then I read the first few sentences, scanned the rest, and realized it was going to be part of the problem, not part of the solution.
# October 14, 2003 7:54 PM

Kirk Allen Evans said:

Blasphemy. XML has and will continue to change the face of computing.
# January 26, 2004 6:43 PM

Eric Maino said:

I no way has anyone said XML hasn't change and won't continue to change the face of computing. The only point emphasized is that web services and other components are not written in XML. Yes they may use XML, render XML, consume XML, etc... but they are not written in XML.
# January 26, 2004 8:41 PM
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