4 ms·

> XML is the future That kinda happened, just not in the way everyone thought. In 2023, JavaScript XML is the most popular way to develop web applications, an

> XML is the future That kinda happened, just not in the way everyone thought. In 2023, JavaScript XML is the most popular way to develop web applications, and a common choice for mobile and desktop applications. --- EDIT: JSX/React/React Native, in case that wasn't clear.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
jonnycomputer 3y ago
Can you elaborate on that?
- preommr 3y ago
  JSX - stands for Javascript XML. React components can be referenced as custom tags in a markup that's an extension of html - pretty much xml.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - baq 3y ago
    Yes. It won because the name starts with JS and I’m only half joking. What I desperately need now is JSML so I can free myself from the madness of YAML.
    - Ygg2 3y ago
      As someone working on Yaml parser. I fully understand that pain.
  - jonnycomputer 3y ago
    Thank you.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
pyeri 3y ago
Even the AJAX technology was initially sold as "Asynchronous JavaScript and XML". Today, it's most common to send AJAX requests from frontends and most of them have nothing to do with XML data, but funny how that acronym still stays till today!
- deaddodo 3y ago
  The original XMLHttpRequest introduced in Microsoft's IE was intended to transport XML messages from a backend to a frontend, since JSON didn't exist at the time. Realistically, originally it was just used to directly inject blobs of html into the page. Ajax just referred to utilizing that feature along with JavaScript's async functionality to create dynamic webpages. It wasn't really a technology, and I've very rarely heard the term post-2010 (same as how "DHTML" died around 2005).
  - dheera 3y ago
    I had the equivalent of XMLHttpRequest LONG before XMLHttpRequest existed, back in the IE4 days. I did it by creating a tiny iframe with the target URL and then retrieving its contents. Never mind that I could also read users' hard drives, but I had AJAX long before AJAX was launched. Unfortunately there was a period of time when Microsoft patched the security issues with iframes and that was no longer possible, but it was fun for a while to have a taste of the future.
    - wvenable 3y ago
      I product I developed in the early 2000's used that technique for a dynamic tree control. That product wasn't retired until 3-4 years ago. It still worked as intended in modern browsers but you could, in theory, fire up Netscape 4.0 in 2019 and that dynamic tree would still work.
    - wizofaus 3y ago
      iframes didn't become common across browsers much earlier than XMLHttpRequest from what I recall - maybe a year or so? But I certainly remember playing similar tricks to get smoother page updates, in some cases even using actual FRAME elements (are there any pages at all these days still using those? They appear to be deprecated anyway.)
NoboruWataya 3y ago
XML underpins of a lot of standards that are ubiquitous in their areas, eg, RSS, XMPP, GPX/TCX. Tons of government APIs still use XML. In the EU, in the financial sector at least, pretty much all regulatory reporting uses XML. And when the regulators decide to make some of that data available to the public, it typically uses XML as well. Companies in many countries are required to tag their financial statements using XBRL, based on XML. XML has not failed. It has just achieved the status, coveted amongst serious technologies, of being boring.
- paulddraper 3y ago
  Don't forget SVG!

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

jonnycomputer 3y ago

Can you elaborate on that?

preommr 3y ago
JSX - stands for Javascript XML. React components can be referenced as custom tags in a markup that's an extension of html - pretty much xml.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- baq 3y ago
  Yes. It won because the name starts with JS and I’m only half joking. What I desperately need now is JSML so I can free myself from the madness of YAML.
  - Ygg2 3y ago
    As someone working on Yaml parser. I fully understand that pain.
- jonnycomputer 3y ago
  Thank you.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

pyeri 3y ago

Even the AJAX technology was initially sold as "Asynchronous JavaScript and XML". Today, it's most common to send AJAX requests from frontends and most of them have nothing to do with XML data, but funny how that acronym still stays till today!

deaddodo 3y ago
The original XMLHttpRequest introduced in Microsoft's IE was intended to transport XML messages from a backend to a frontend, since JSON didn't exist at the time. Realistically, originally it was just used to directly inject blobs of html into the page. Ajax just referred to utilizing that feature along with JavaScript's async functionality to create dynamic webpages. It wasn't really a technology, and I've very rarely heard the term post-2010 (same as how "DHTML" died around 2005).
- dheera 3y ago
  I had the equivalent of XMLHttpRequest LONG before XMLHttpRequest existed, back in the IE4 days. I did it by creating a tiny iframe with the target URL and then retrieving its contents. Never mind that I could also read users' hard drives, but I had AJAX long before AJAX was launched. Unfortunately there was a period of time when Microsoft patched the security issues with iframes and that was no longer possible, but it was fun for a while to have a taste of the future.
  - wvenable 3y ago
    I product I developed in the early 2000's used that technique for a dynamic tree control. That product wasn't retired until 3-4 years ago. It still worked as intended in modern browsers but you could, in theory, fire up Netscape 4.0 in 2019 and that dynamic tree would still work.
  - wizofaus 3y ago
    iframes didn't become common across browsers much earlier than XMLHttpRequest from what I recall - maybe a year or so? But I certainly remember playing similar tricks to get smoother page updates, in some cases even using actual FRAME elements (are there any pages at all these days still using those? They appear to be deprecated anyway.)

NoboruWataya 3y ago

XML underpins of a lot of standards that are ubiquitous in their areas, eg, RSS, XMPP, GPX/TCX. Tons of government APIs still use XML. In the EU, in the financial sector at least, pretty much all regulatory reporting uses XML. And when the regulators decide to make some of that data available to the public, it typically uses XML as well. Companies in many countries are required to tag their financial statements using XBRL, based on XML. XML has not failed. It has just achieved the status, coveted amongst serious technologies, of being boring.

paulddraper 3y ago
Don't forget SVG!