The reasons that I am planning on adding better XML formattings for
my applications are (these may or not be directly applicable to your
situation, but it may help to see other's reasoning)
1. Everything I work on will be integrated with the internet at some
level. Knowing that most server platforms have some support for XML
parsing, I know that if I have to communicate with something other
than an MC server, the parsing code should be relatively simple on
the other platform. My goal is to have all communications between mc
client and mc server stacks to be in XML so I can jump servers
quickly if necessary.
2. Backup files are easy to create, easy to parse, and...sometimes
more important..easy to read (human reading :). I.E. I have a
database of references...these are all stored in XML...XML files can
be read by Internet Explorer 5 as a hierarchical tree...makes it easy
to poke through a backup file.
3. Data sets that have varied (loose) formats and embedded structure
are easier to deal with.. i.e. things like
<main_idea> There are three points:<list><li>Point 1</li><li>Point
2</li><li>Point 3</li></list></main_idea>
Something like that is difficult to deal with with simple key structures
Like others who have posted, the processing is done in other formats
(i.e. arrays,etc) that are native to MC...but, this is really the
case for all systems (i.e. try multiplying two XML elements together
without first converting them to numbers).
In your specific case, your structure is quite similar to XML, and if
it doesn't need to be shared with other apps, then you really have no
reason to change over (and there is quite a bit of code that makes
reading key structures easy). Well..other than you could impress
fellow party-goers that you are using XML ;)
-ml
>Using XML for the lesson content probably makes good sense. But the
>program also has to output various student data such as test results,
>lesson progress, etc. Currently, this is done in typical key/value
>style. E.g.:
>[GENERAL]
>userid=xxxx123
>lastname=Cragg
>firstname=Dave
>[TEST_RESULTS]
>recenttestdate=2001,4,1
>recenttestscore=0
>etc.
>
>Should I change this to use XML? Right now, I can't see any good
>reason to, so I probably won't. But I think I'm likely to face the
>question, "Why aren't you using XML for this?" My answer right now
>is a shrug of the shoulders. So what do you think? Should I change it
>to XML or not?
>
>Cheers
>Dave Cragg
Mark J. Luetzelschwab [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Graduate Research Assistant (v) (512) 232 6034
Instructional Technology (f) (512) 232 2322
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