3. Conclusions
It is easy to write programs that can process XML documents. An XML "well-formed document" processor can be written in a couple of days, and a parser that reads "valid" XML documents takes less than a week to write. This means that users can include XML processing capabilities in their products, like Microsoft did with Internet Explorer 4.0.
XML, because of its simplicity and the advent of the "well-formed document" concept, is a natural candidate for use on the Internet, providing complex formatting possibility, plus the ability to perform advanced searching and navigation functions.
XML, like SGML, is not owned by any vendor of hardware or software, so is free from licensing hassles and is relatively stable.
Time will tell if the goals of XML have been reached, but in its short life, XML has already made an impact that SGML has been trying to create for more than ten years. XML has stirred the imagination of content providers by giving them the simple, extensible, vendor-independent way of describing and interchanging information that HTML has failed to do. And, XML has the potential of delivering good-looking presentations with a high-quality structure that PDF can't match.