[SGVLUG] Is poking fun at Microsoft ever "off topic"?

[David Lawyer]

On Wed, Feb 21, 2007 at 08:48:52AM -0800, Munjal Thakkar wrote:
> Office 2007 files are all based on XML (semi-cool, I guess) 

The markup format DocBook is now based on xml and it's terrible.  It's
hard to write because you cant omit tags like you can in LinuxDoc
(which is sgml instead of xml).  So xml goes against the grain of
progress in computers that lets the software do the work.  Xml doesn't
permit the omission of tags.  In the example above, the work the
software should do is to find the missing tags and add them as
LinuxDoc does.  It's feasible in sgml but not possible in xml.  In
LinuxDoc, one often omits about 75% of the tags resulting in much
better readability.  In some cases, both start and end tags may be
omitted in LinuxDoc (example: paragraphs delimited by blank lines).

An exception to the above criticism of xml is where humans don't need
to type in the xml, which may be the case for Open Office.  Going from
sgml to xml was in many ways a step backwards.

			David Lawyer