It's the appropriate native language for most new technologies, including .Net and most new Web services. XML helps Piper, for example, express the idea of spellchecking the content of an email message, but not the header elements. GUIs are where most computer users now live. Moreover, Piper's connections are considerably richer than Unix's pipes. Most compelling of all, perhaps, is the opportunity to escape the confines of a single desktop and access resources throughout a rich network.
Piper knows how to do that, too.
All of the developers appreciate the need for a system capable of very sophisticated operation, yet with a simple facade. Cameron Laird and Kathryn Soraiz manage Phaseit, a software consultancy just outside Houston.