Robert Fisher

Just thinking out loud

On XML

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For what it does, XML is:

  • Too hard for programs to parse efficiently
  • Too hard for humans to read & write efficiently
  • Could use types

While XML certainly makes some improvements on SGML, an XML parser is still not the cakewalk it could've been.

While XML is plain text that can be read & written by humans, it is needlessly verbose. Plus, the tags tend to blend in with the content obscuring both the structure & the content.

While storing/transporting data in plain text is usually a good thing, it is often still good to have a notion of types.

SGML & XML are markup languages. They make sense when used for markup. They do not make sense for encoding data.

Alternatives?

  • CSV (the standard version, not Microsoft's)
  • S-expressions
  • JSON

last updated 1 year ago #