I'm reminded of a questionnaire that went round my college 
asking "do you think there is a demand for a photographic darkroom?" (you can 
tell my age). To which I responded, "I don't know, why not do a survey to find 
out?". The point being, no-one has a bird's eye view of the market, 
especially in an area where so many tools are free; you can only find out what's 
happening across the board by asking people what they are doing individually, 
and aggregating the results: you can't find out (with any level of reliability) 
by asking people what their opinion of the big picture is.
 
I see extensive use of XML Schema and DTDs, perhaps with a 
bias towards XSDL in data-oriented work and DTDs in document-oriented 
applications. I have to say that I have heard an immense amount of talk about 
Relax NG and Schematron (and much praise for both of them) but have very rarely 
seen either used in anger. But my worm's eye view may be completely 
wrong.
 
As well as data validation, XML Schema is of course widely 
used in data binding applications. Schema-aware XSLT and XQuery processing, 
however, is still in its infancy - those who use it recognize the value in 
speeding up the development cycle, but those who don't tend not to realise what 
they are missing.
 
Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/


  
  
  From: Khaled Aly [mailto:ka.aly@l...] 
  
Sent: 09 January 2008 12:13
To: 
  xml-dev@l...
Subject: [xml-dev] Schema development for 
  information design & authoring


  
Hello

With a more 
  general modeling background in a number of other aspects, I'm a newcomer to 
  "formal" information design and data modeling. 

I'm interested in 
  learning more about the business merit and application areas of schema 
  development to the last. I could see that DTDs, and more recently RELAX NG and 
  Schematron, are being used for industry standard XML-based authoring 
  applications; but that's mostly a one-time per. 

I'm wondering about 
  the business case magnitude/significance of  schema development for purpose of information 
  development & design, documentation, and content management.

Is it 
  relatively true that the prominent merit is in the area of controlling data 
  exchange for eCommerce and Web Services?

Thank you very much for any 
  insight.

Regards.
Khaled