Subject: Re: Is CML dead?

From: Christoph Steinbeck <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 15:21:02 +0200

> Last year in May there was a vivid discussion on the CCL about using
> XML/CML for storing chemical information. I recently checked up the
> website http://www.xml-cml.org and it seems quite dead... 
> The only software available is a bunch of java classes and the CML DTD
> (DocumentTypeDescription).
> 
> If I would like to read or write CML/XML files from my programs written in
> C or Fortran do I have to write a complete library to do it? If I would do
> that, would others be interested to use it in their software? To extend
> the library? 

I don't think it's dead.
I'm just sitting here at this years meeting of the
Chemistry-Information-Computers section of the German Chemical Society
at the Analytica in Munich. Tomorrow we will have at least two talks
dealing with CML. Having already talked to some people here about the
subject of CML, it seems that there is a considerable amount of
uncertainty about the future of CML and whether it will be possible to
implement it as "the standard of coding chemical documents". The most
important concern is too many people doing to many different things (not
with, but) to CML, which is also my biggest concern. If I don't forget
it I will comment on what will have been discussed tomorrow. 

Greetings, 

Chris

--
Dr. Christoph Steinbeck (http://www.ice.mpg.de/departments/ChemInf)
MPI of Chemical Ecology, Tatzendpromenade 1a, 07745 Jena, Germany
Tel: +49(0)3641 643644 - Fax: +49(0)3641 643665

What is man but that lofty spirit - that sense of enterprise. 
... Kirk, "I, Mudd," stardate 4513.3..