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[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: Microsoft FUD on binary XML...
 Dennis Sosnoski wrote: > I don't know why you say "you can't really make the > claim that a binary format will be faster to encode and decode". My apologies. I should have said: "binary formats won't *ALWAYS* be faster." Often, some would argue most of the time, they will be -- but not always. There are a number of things that could slow down the handling of a binary encoding. The obvious first thing to consider is simply bad design... Some binary formats are written in such a way that the require a great deal of data buffering or complex state management in order to be properly decoded. They may compress nicely, but they do so using methods that are inherently very expensive. Another thing to consider is the potential cost in converting data to address things like "endian" concerns. If you have to flip the bits in every number you get and you have many numbers, this can get expensive. Similarly, converting from a "standard" floating point representation to some different representation supported by your machine or language might be expensive. Also, if it turns out that your application is primarily concerned with large strings, then a binary format can deliver very disappointing results. Please note that in my comment, I wasn't arguing against binary encodings. Rather, I was simply suggesting that we shouldn't consider all binary encodings to be a panacea. Some are better than others and in some cases, using a binary encoding just won't buy you very much. Folk who use these things should use the same due diligence in decision making that they would use when making any other design or configuration decision. Neither binary nor text encodings are automatically either good or bad. "It all depends." bob wyman 
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