Design-by-Committee

[Remco Gerlich]

David LeBlanc <whisper at oz.nospamnet> wrote in comp.lang.python:
> XML is, imho, the most important thing that's happened to data since the 
> advent of computers. We spent roughly 5 decades polishing and structuring 
> computer languages whilst leaving data pretty much an ad-hoc affair. Now, 
> with XML, we can create, share and manipulate fine grained data 
> structures across architectures and programming languages.

Blatant hype. You could already always define a data format for your files
that other programs could use. Now there is XML, the syntax is standard -
but what the data in that file *means* still needs to be defined for every
application. A MS Word file may be in XML soon, but that doesn't mean it's
any more usable than a binary one now. It probably will be many times bigger.

Sure, no need to write a new parser every time, but in return you have a
system that's a lot less efficient that it could be, in many cases.

I agree that it has its uses, but your statement is *much* too much.

That most important thing that's happened to data since the advent of
computers was probably the invention of storage media. The file was also
important. And datacommunication.

I would not rank XML near those when thinking about importance...

-- 
Remco Gerlich