If you think XML is old tech, wait until you hear of EDI, still powering Walmart and Amazon logistics. XML came in like a wrecking ball with its self-documenting promise designed to replace that cryptic pesky payload called EDI. XML promised to solve world hunger. It spawned SOAP, XML over RPC, DOM, DTD, the heyday was beautiful and Microsoft was leading the charge. C# was also right around this time. Consulting firms were bloomed charged with delivering the asynchronous revolution, the loosely coupled messaging promises of XML. I think it succeeded and it’s now quietly in the halls of warehouse having a beer or two with its older cousin the Electronic Data Interchange aka EDI.

EDI is XML now.