XML Considered Harmful

[Michael F. Stemper]

On the prolog thread, somebody posted a link to:
<https://dirtsimple.org/2004/12/python-is-not-java.html>

One thing that it tangentially says is "XML is not the answer."

I read this page right when I was about to write an XML parser
to get data into the code for a research project I'm working on.
It seems to me that XML is the right approach for this sort of
thing, especially since the data is hierarchical in nature.

Does the advice on that page mean that I should find some other
way to get data into my programs, or does it refer to some kind
of misuse/abuse of XML for something that it wasn't designed
for?

If XML is not the way to package data, what is the recommended
approach?
-- 
Michael F. Stemper
Life's too important to take seriously.