Andy said: >>To me the vocabulary of the XML is practically irrelevant provided the XML >>format is closely coupled with the binary format, you can always count on >>XSLT to make a transformation.
That's true and it is one way of doing it. Another way is to have the XML format be independent of the underlying binary format. That's pretty much what OpenOffice did with their formats. They're not just record dumps of Office into XML. They tried to make it be independent of any specific office suite. So, in theory, the OpenOffice XML could come from Excel, OpenOffice, 123, Quattro Pro, or even be created on the fly from a web service without any real document. I think there's great power in that. Instead of making the XML format irrelevant, it makes the binary format irrelevant. In the end you probably have it both ways -- a lower-level API specific to a given binary format. That is used directly for projects where performance is of primary importance. Then, have a higher level project of XML readers and writers that adapt that API so some (hopefully) standards-based XML format. The application developer would then work more at that level. One step at a time... -Rob
