A key area to watch may be whether and how XML might make inroads into
the electronic paper domain - such as XPS, PDF and an XML mechanism to
update such electronic paper - UOML. The tradition to make electronic paper
a binary format, uneditable/unreadable by text-based editors could perhaps be
at a turning point. This could put the whole issue right into the eyes of a huge
business and developer audience. Will everyone stick with binary for this or
accept some compromises towards text-like XML? Or will the world stick at
binary format based on XML? Or keep to binary with updating by something
in XML text just as SQL text updates a binary database? Is this a test case
in the making? Interesting to watch what is happening with PDF, XPS and
UOML and compare it to the history and perhaps the future of databases.
Best Regards
---
Stephen Green
Partner
SystML, http://www.systml.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 117 9541606
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+22:37 .. and voice
