The DOM (like XML) is not a triumph of elegance; it's a triumph of "if we do not hang together, we shall hang separately." At least the Browser Wars were not followed by API Wars. Better a common API that we all love to hate than a bazillion contending APIs that carve the Web up into contending enclaves of True Believers.
--Mike Champion on the xml-dev mailing list, Thursday, September 27, 2001