The impression I have is that (to misquote Churchill) XML is the worst
option available, except for all the others. We need something that can
represent a fairly complex data structure, easily supports addition or
removal of particular fields in the structure (including fields not
foreseen in the original design), is not hard for programs to parse,
and is widely supported --- ie, "not hard" includes "you don't have to
write your own parser, in most languages". How many realistic
alternatives are there?
One realistic alternative may be JSON: parsers for nearly all languages are freely available; everything web-affected speeks it perfectly; it's easier on the eye then XML, less bytes per information, addition and removal of fields as well as complex structures are possible.
Harald
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GHUM Harald Massa
persuadere et programmare
Harald Armin Massa
Spielberger Straße 49
70435 Stuttgart
0173/9409607
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