http://harmful.cat-v.org/software/xml/s-exp_vs_XML "SGML was a major improvement on the markup languages that preceded it (including GML), which helped create better publishing systems and helped people think about information in much improved ways, but when the zealots forgot the publishing heritage and took the notion that information can be separated from presentation out of the world of publishing into general data representation because SGML had had some success in "database publishing", something went awry, not only superficially, but fundamentally. It is not unlike when a baby, whose mother satisfies its every need before it is even aware that it has been expressed, grows up to believe that the world in general is both influenced by and obliged to satisfy its whims. Even though nobody in their right mind would argue that babies should fend for themselves and earn their own living, at some point in the child's life, it must begin a progression towards indepen...
