[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: Re: Where does the "nothing left but toolkits" mythcome fr
Robin Berjon wrote: > > Well, even just considering XML there are several of these that I > disagree with. Or rather, a lot discusses "how ERH would do it" vs "how > other people that may have different needs could do it", with > judgemental implications (interestingly enough, just as it is whenever > you FUD about binary) that only the former is correct (eg 11, or in a > different way, 50. "XML documents are almost always smaller than the > equivalent binary file format" is just a dirty lie, and claiming it's > true using Word documents as a comparison base for proof of that is just > amusing, if somewhat dishonest). Because of this, even when I have > equally strong and identical opinions about some of those parts, I'm > uncomfortable agreeing with them. Maybe being a doc-head Perl hacker in > a binary world makes you listen to other people. Or something. > That's a ridiculous oversimplification of what's actually written there. Anyone whose curious can read the full explanation with all caveats and details in place: http://www.cafeconleche.org/books/effectivexml/chapters/50.html However, I do still hold to the basic statement that XML documents are almost always smaller than the equivalent binary file format. While I have seen people do really stupid things that no one would ever do in the real world like encoding every bit of an image as an element in order to prove how inefficient XML is, the fact is in 2005 real world documents are routinely as small or smaller in XML than the equivalent non-XML formats. Software vendors stopped worrying about size roughly ten years ago, and nobody noticed or cared. I think you're the one who's having trouble accepting that different people need different solutions. You want to force everyone to use XML, not me. I have no problem with there being data in the world that cannot be conveniently and efficiently represented in XML. If developers in particular spaces like mobile applications need to use something other than XML, that's fine. I don't think there is any one solution that will fit all needs, and attempting to create one will just produce a mess that satisfies no one. Calling your one-true uber format "XML" will simply confuse the marketplace and drag XML down with it. -- Elliotte Rusty Harold elharo@m... XML in a Nutshell 3rd Edition Just Published! http://www.cafeconleche.org/books/xian3/ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0596007647/cafeaulaitA/ref=nosim
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