PUBLIC MARKS with tags dev-theory & xml

Here’s a radical idea: don’t even think of making your own language until you’re sure that you can’t do the job using one of the Big Five: XHTML, DocBook, ODF, UBL, and Atom.

With every programming language I have worked in it has become normal practice, after having developed an initial series of programs, to identify a common structure to which all subsequent programs should be built. This may take some time as it involves a bit of trial and error in playing with the different ways in which a task can be achieved in order to find the methodology that gives the most advantages in the long term.