At 11:30 PM 8/13/2009, John Dammeyer wrote:
Hi,
What exactly is the point of being able to generate XML files from Delphi.
I'm a bit puzzled as to the usefulness of the generated files. Wikkipedia
tells about the mark-up language but again, I don't see the point.
It depends on what you're going to be doing with the data. If the
purpose of generating the files is to keep some data between runs of
your program, then using a .ini or .csv file or a proprietary format
would likely be easier to implement.
If however those files need to be used by another piece of software,
then XML is a "lingua franca" that can be read and processed by much
other software. XML also has the advantage that you can point your
browser at an XML file and it will be displayed in a hierarchical
fashion, making it a bit friendlier than some of the other formats.
Also, if you have an application where raw data needs to be merged
via XSL transform, then you need to use XML because that's what the XSL needs.
IMHO, the bottom line boils down to these:
1) you need to tailor your file format requirements to the job at hand
2) while creating XML is not hard, to read XML you need to use a
parser (or you'll drive yourself nuts); there are however some good
freeware parsers out there
3) if it comes down to a choice between XML and some other format,
and there is even the slightest possibility that the file might need
to be used by another system (now or in future), go with XML because
of the high level of interoperability
John
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Regards,
Sid Gudes
PIA Systems Corporation
sid.gu...@piasystems.com
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