Two "standard" libraries???

[Alexander Panek]

Robert Fraser wrote:
> Peter C. Chapin Wrote:
> 
>> Also keep in mind that in my scenario library X and library Y were
>> developed independently by competing vendors; there is no chance of
>> convincing the X developers to use the same XML support library as the Y
>> developers are using.
> 
> Alexander Panek Wrote:
> 
>> I honestly doubt this case is happening very often.
> 
> Well, if the product I'm working on is any metric, it happens quite frequently. We use three different database vendor's databases to store different types of data (only one we have to pay licensing fees for). Count in engineering/test/tools code, we probably use 5+ different XML implementations. And this is just one product that integrates with a number of others. Heck, while the main system is *only* in Java and C++ with a legacy SOAP database API in Perl, and one minor subsystem in Python, the engineering and test teams have tools written in about 10 different programming languages (no D as far as I know).
> 
> So judging by that, in a larger system, I expect there to be significant redundancy in tools used.

Point taken. Though, in all my naive idealism, I dare to say that the 
system you're working in is pretty "diverse" in its entirety. :P