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I think you and I have different definitions of success and failure.
To say XML on the Web has failed miserably becase it's very widely used and imperfect seems a little odd to me.
Yes, there are problems with encodings. Even with 20/20 hindsight it's hard to see how we could have done anything different at the time, with maybe a dozen people using XML.
Saying the MIME parameter overrides the document's encoding was necessary at the time, because we had to work within existing infrastructure and didn't have enough influence to change it. Or didn't think we did. But it does make life hard for people who post documents without control over the way it's served.
Before long we'll likely see the majority of documents on the Web assuming a reader in China or India. Human nature being what it is, we'll all struggle for a while and eventually figure out a 90% solution that will be widely deployed and widely grumbled about.
In practice, that's what counts for succes: widespread adoption. You can't be a perfectionist and still make everyone happy.
So maybe XML is in fact a Miserable Success :-) :-)
Liam
[Disclaimer; I am XML Activity Lead at W3C]
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