Comment Re:As always (Score 1) 273
Always good advice, but there may also be many situations where it can be beneficial to use XML, as there are also many cases where you may be mandated to use XML. In either case, at the core of this argument is "the future of XML". The future of XML is still secure and growing, whether or not developers love or hate the technology. As several posts point out, there are numerous XML standards for data exchange where you may be mandated to use XML (I've needed to use it often in the Insurance and Financial sectors), and web services are certainly growing as more organizations adopt SOA.
As XML has become more popular (whether by conscious adoption or mandated use), and has become a defacto standard in many industries, plenty of tools have been developed to support its use. Of course this includes programming libraries such SAX and DOM parsers, but there are also numerous Open Source and commercial tools that help implement and manage XML implementations quickly and easily. Using some of these tools, you may start to find it easier to use XML in situations where you might not have otherwise. (Previously, I has not often used XML for configuration files, but using an XML-based data integration tool I found it natural, easier and quicker to use an XML config file than a text-based format.) Similarly, I am able to build and deploy web services in a fraction of the time it would take me to code the same service.
As XML has become more popular (whether by conscious adoption or mandated use), and has become a defacto standard in many industries, plenty of tools have been developed to support its use. Of course this includes programming libraries such SAX and DOM parsers, but there are also numerous Open Source and commercial tools that help implement and manage XML implementations quickly and easily. Using some of these tools, you may start to find it easier to use XML in situations where you might not have otherwise. (Previously, I has not often used XML for configuration files, but using an XML-based data integration tool I found it natural, easier and quicker to use an XML config file than a text-based format.) Similarly, I am able to build and deploy web services in a fraction of the time it would take me to code the same service.
