As long as we are philosophizing, I thought I might as well too. Sometimes
it can be considered just banter, and sometimes it can be productive, so
please excuse the rambling.
DNS services are still today the most misunderstood part of the Internet.
DNS formating is very cryptic and highly structured. But it is also very
flexible and relatively fast. The fact that it has survived as long as it
has virtually unchanged is a credit to its highly structured nature.
Computer software has evolved with increasing complexity and increased
efficiency. First we had hard interrupts, then soft interrupts, then shared
routines and reusable heaps, then shared library files, then services, and
on and on. Each stage offered more reusable code and more efficiency, but
at a cost of more complexity and more restrictions on how they are used. If
you allow me the liberty of calling these shared code segments "canned"
routines, these canned routines have been a natural evolution of the
industry, and have contributed greatly to its growth.
I don't think there are any higher-level "canned" routines in a DNS server
(at least none that I have been able to take advantage of), but XML
certainly fits into that category. When used with other higher-level
standards in the appropriate environment, it is a very effective tool. But
the key word is "appropriate". It would be a very ideal world if everything
could fit into these "canned" routines. But speed and flexibility have to
be balanced against reusability and extensibility. Rendering of HTML is a
"canned" routine, but does it belong in a messaging system? XML is a
"canned" routine, but does it belong in DNS?
As each "canned" routine attempts to cover more and more possible
scenarios, it grows in complexity and size. HTML rendering is a perfect
example of a "canned" routine that is now large and complex, but is
perfectly suitable for use in a Web browser. Does that mean we should use
it in a messaging system just because it is available? It's not so much
"like trying to put a square peg in a round hole", it's more "like trying
to fit an elephant into a suitcase".
J.A. Coutts