XML: Too much of a good thing?

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People abuse XML

XML is a meta-grammar intended to make it easier to specify a full grammar (using a DTD, or better yet a schema) for structuring data that can be efficiently parsed and validated by an off-the-shelf library. XML provides meta-grammar for transforming a stream of characters into a tree structure, and the schema or DTD define the semantics and correct form for the tree structure.

The problem is, 99.9% of the time no one bothers specifying creating the DTD or schema. Instead, they use XML as a convenient way to avoid writing parsers, and to leverage the latest technology buzzword. This is better than writing ad-hoc parsers, but it is no where near leveraging the full potential of XML.

So the semantic structure of the document remains embedded in the code that generates and/or parses the <ocument.

If developers had to specify the complete grammar every time they wanted to create a new XML dialect, there would be a lot less XML dialects out there. Of course, this would also eliminate the perceived developer efficiency gains associated with XML, so a lot of what are now XML documents would be ad-hoc formats parsed by a clumsy set of regular expressions.

As as said, the partial usage of XML that we frequently see today is better than none at all, but it really shows that what people really want is easier ways to solve their immediate problems with as little thought as possible. Not robust ways to add semantic structure to their documents.

Posted by: Erik1234   Posted on: 09/08/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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