Chapter 2. Introducing XML and SQL: A History Lesson of Sorts

In which the compelling stories of the birth of our two heroes are revealed.

Before we delve into application design with XML and SQL, let's step back for a second to consider the historical context of these technologies. No technology is developed in a vacuum, and understanding their historical contexts can provide valuable insight into current and future architectural decisions that you have to make. If you're a judge who's trying to interpret some point of constitutional law, you need to understand the Founding Fathers' intentions. If you're writing literary criticism, you need to understand the author's time and circumstances to understand his or her work better. Likewise, to solve specific problems of their times, people build technology standards. It pays to understand the context before you start fooling around with these technologies.