On Wednesday 08 January 2003 14:13 pm, Per Jessen wrote: > On Wed, 8 Jan 2003 12:13:10 -0600, Dimitri Maziuk wrote: > >> The question though, is what is gained by writing XML as opposed the > >> current CRO? > > > >A: buzzword compliance. > > Because I'm just now working on this, I hate to agree with you, but > I have to. I've been spewing those same buzzwords at customers often > enough to never want to again. Ever. > > However, for a new project covering a problem of how to represent > data in a presentation-neutral way, XML is probably a good answer ?
Possibly, probably, yes. Depends on your objectives: XML is no good if you want your files to be e.g. human-readable, or as small as possible. In theory it'd be nice if everyone stored their data in some standard format. In practice people store very different kinds of data and it's probably impossible to come up with a "one size fits all" format. The problem with XML is that it's often advertised as such "one size fits all" format, while in reality it simply shifts the "difficult" part from the format to DTD/stylesheet. In theory you could use a "renderer" program and a style sheet to render XML into some other format, like HTML or PDF. In practice, there's usually no stylesheet and no renderer program, and you have to write them yourself. After you've learned the DTD. Plus, a generic XML parser coupled with a generic rendering engine can't possibly be as efficient as a purpose-built program that converts one particular format to another. So yeah, in theory XML is probably good for something. In practice, OTOH... Dima -- The speed at which a mistyped command executes is directly proportional to the amount of damage done. -- Joe Zeff +------------------------------------------------------------------------ | This is the analog-help mailing list. To unsubscribe from this | mailing list, go to | http://lists.isite.net/listgate/analog-help/unsubscribe.html | | List archives are available at | http://www.mail-archive.com/analog-help@lists.isite.net/ | http://lists.isite.net/listgate/analog-help/archives/ | http://www.tallylist.com/archives/index.cfm/mlist.7 +------------------------------------------------------------------------
