Chapter 11. About the Applications

One of my consulting clients has two favorite phrases that I hear over and over:

“That wouldn't be a problem, would it?”

“That shouldn't take too long, should it?”

Whenever I hear one of these phrases, I get a cold chill down my spine. Even if you're not a freelance consultant, you probably don't like to hear either of these from your “customer” (or your boss). The following project chapters are meant to give you a good solid foundation on which to build a very wide range of XML-based solutions, and this chapter is meant to help you use them effectively.

One of the primary objectives of this book has been to remain as technology-neutral as possible. The software development world has become somewhat polarized between those developers who favor Microsoft technologies and those who favor open source. One of the greatest properties of XML is the fact that it is not tied to a particular platform or architecture. It can bridge an entire organization's IT department, from mainframes to handheld devices. The following projects have been built using technologies and tools from both sides of the fence, preferably together.