Practice · 1998–2014 · Object Wave
XML-as-architecture
When every wiring decision lived in 4,000-line XML files. Configuration became a second programming language nobody wanted.
XML config let vendors sell visual designers for problems that wanted code review. Merge conflicts in Spring beans became a full-time job. It faded because YAML, annotations, and convention beat angle-bracket archaeology.
Case studies
Patterns
Context
Everything became an object — until it didn't
Objects promised reuse; enterprises bought the promise in bulk. Java gave a portable runtime with real teeth. CORBA and UML-heavy processes gave vendors a decade of workshops. The survivors were the languages and platforms that outlived the methodology theater. The lesson — complexity sold as architecture burns cash — returns every decade with new branding.
Compare with
Related
Framework · 1999–now
J2EE / EE frameworks
EJB-heavy stacks taught a generation that XML config was architecture. Spring and lighter runtimes absorbed the survivors.
Architecture · 2000–2016
SOAP / WS-*
Enterprise web services with ceremony. Interoperability theater with XML envelopes.
$ Banks and governments sunk fortunes into WS-Security, WSDL toolchains, and vendor stacks — then quietly rebuilt on REST/JSON while still paying maintenance on the old bus.