his is expected to be the year that IT departments begin prototype projects using Extensible Markup Language. The ease and flexibility with which developers will be able to deploy Web applications will likely lead to rapid and widespread acceptance of XML.
Two vendors are making timely introductions of XML development tools. Object Design Inc. will ship its eXcelon XML data server in the first quarter. Bluestone Software Inc. shipped its XML Server and XwingML GUI builder last week; its Visual-XML, a graphical development tool, will be available in March.
XML is more than an extension to HTML for creating interactive content. Many view it as a universal object model that will overtake Microsoft's COM and the Object Management Group's Corba standard, says Robert Bieckel, a Bluestone VP.
Bluestone XML Server is a dynamic repository for XML and other types of application code. Its focus is on applications that will use XML for data interchange and business-to-business or program-to-program interaction. The ODIeXcelon server is a fast and persistent XML data cache.