No that would be an early 1990s file format ;)
1999 is exactly right for the start of the XML hype, everything had to be XML, it would single handedly solve the software crisis (after OOP failed to do that) because everything would be able to talk to everything!
Indeed, early 00s was still the SOAP XML era if I remember right, WSD, SOA, ...
SOAP XML is so uselessly convoluted.
The whole Italian e-invoicing system is based on SOAP XML, and it's atrocious. They approved the specs in 2013, so it was already dated when it came out.
Jar