ABSTRACT
XML is the latest wave to hit surfers of the web. In this panel, we'll explore how a combination of XML and object technology can have a dramatic impact on the future of networked applications. Or not.

Our panellists represent a spectrum of expertise, ranging from vendors to practitioners. I've asked them to share with us their view of the relationship between objects and XML; some ideas for discussion include:

• Is there a synergy, are we exploiting it?
• Or is there no connection -- do objects get in the way?
• What about types -- do they help or hinder?

Bernard Horan is an Enterprise Architect in the Information Technology department of Sun Microsystems. He has extensive experience in object technology as a researcher, engineer and writer.

XML & Objects
Ron Ben-Natan
I believe that there is a true synergy between XML and objects. However, I think that many of the benefits of XML may be (unwillingly) sacrificed if one views XML as a means to serialize objects and if one forgets that XML has a life of its own and should not necessarily be brought under the object umbrella. The relationships between XML and objects include obvious ones such as the fact that the common use of XML documents is through the DOM interfaces or that companies that have good OO products have quickly released XML products. Being a representative of the user community (as opposed to the vendor community) I will give two examples from our use of XML within RTS Software's product architecture. Our product is a suite of applications for Field Service management and falls into the category of large enterprise applications. The software has an object-oriented design and is written in Java but is very much based on a relational schema and needs to work with many legacy systems such as ERP systems, financial systems, and help desk software. Our focus while using XML has been in two areas -- integration with other systems and the phrasing of setup information used by our data-driven frameworks.

Modeling XML Schemas using the UML
Dave Carlson
XML is often used to serialize instances of application object models for data interchange with other vendors’ systems. UML models can be specified that enable generation of: (1) an interchange object model; (2) the XML schemas for data interchange; and (3) the import/export code for XML serialization. In my presentation I will describe a brief case study of this approach for the design of a Rule Modeling Language (RML) specification and XML interchange language.

Why XML?
Chris Ferris
XML stands out as one of the least object-oriented technologies to surface in many years. XML is lacking, presently, in all the characteristics that we expect from an OO technology:

No inheritance
No data hiding
No behavior (and hence no encapsulation)
No polymorphism
No types

So, why is XML seen as a complement to an OO technology such as Java? The common slogan that 'Java is portable code, and XML is portable data' misses a key point and may be at the heart of some of the controversy. Java is not JUST portable code, as an OOL it provides portable OBJECTS: data and behavior. So why do we need XML?

In my presentation I'll describe how we use XML within Sun to communicate between applications, and across networks. We believe that XML, XML Schema, XSLT and the XML Data Binding JSR will provide us with a richer set of integration possibilities and address some of the issues we now face as we extend our application interfaces to the web and to the external systems of our customers, partners and suppliers.