[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message]

Re: The Rising Sun: How XML Binary Restored the Fortunes of I

• To: xml-dev@l...
• Subject: Re: The Rising Sun: How XML Binary Restored the Fortunes of Innovato rs
• From: David Lyon <david.lyon@c...>
• Date: Fri, 8 Apr 2005 03:45:43 -0400
• In-reply-to: <15725CF6AFE2F34DB8A5B4770B7334EE07206DA4@h...>
• References: <15725CF6AFE2F34DB8A5B4770B7334EE07206DA4@h...>
• User-agent: KMail/1.7.1

On Thu, 7 Apr 2005 11:18 am, Bullard, Claude L (Len) wrote:
> An awful lot of pundits seem to be lining up against an XML Binary.
> In the other camp, one finds companies such as Sun and Expway as
> well as standards keiretsu such as the W3DC.  While XML-Dev readers
> are playing with Pythonesque lampoons, Layman and Box publish
> a lampoon designed to poke fun at those innovating on the idea
> of a faster XML.  Berners-Lee is  suggesting that perhaps a
> simpler XML is the answer.  The TAG is demanding benchmarks and
> test cases, something that hasn't been demanded of disruptive
> technologies such as HTML, RSS, CSS, XML, or even SOAP for which
> one could have demanded tests.

Are these experts (and lampoonists) on xml-dev?

> I wonder:  is the XML Binary a disruptive technology that will change
> the current landscape of technology companies?  Is this a case where
> the current winners of the market play wait and see only to be late to
> market with something important?

I think it makes a lot of sense. 

Nothing beats an Internal binary format for processing speed.

If you think about xml parsing, most of the time is spent searching for the 
closing tag. If these things are known internally (how far to jump to skip to 
the end tag) then processing time will obviously come down dramatically. 

but then again, it's possible to do xml in realtime, certainly in single 
network packets. So one would really only notice the benefit on todays 
machines when the size of the file goes over 1M.

not to forget, xml is binary already. Everytime I do 'debug myfile.xml' I see 
all these hex codes - oh and yes, the characters are shown on the far right 
just in case.

Harold seems to favour a bit of lightweight zipping/gzipping/bzipping to cut 
some weight off for on the wire transmission and I tend to agree with that.

So my opinion is that binary xml is useful to have, should be done on the fly, 
but just as part of the loader function for putting it in memory.

It's definitely a nice sort of optimisor technology for any high performance 
parser to have.

David

-- 
Computergrid : The ones with the most connections win.

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: The Rising Sun: How XML Binary Restored the Fortunesof Innovato rs
    • From: Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@m...>

• References:
  • The Rising Sun: How XML Binary Restored the Fortunes of Innovators
    • From: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <len.bullard@i...>

• Prev by Date: IDEAlliance Hosts Second International News Standards Summit--24 May -- Co-located with XTECH 2005
• Next by Date: Re: The Rising Sun: How XML Binary Restored the Fortunesof Innovato rs
• Previous by thread: Re: The Rising Sun: How XML Binary Restored the Fortunesof Innovato rs
• Next by thread: Re: The Rising Sun: How XML Binary Restored the Fortunesof Innovato rs
• Index(es):
  • Date
  • Thread