in reply to XML as part of the Web app warchest....

Be sure you know the advantages of XML for your application before jumping in. A few years ago, when XML was the “newest hot thing”, I tried to find out if it was a good thing to learn for my job. Eventually I decided that the biggest advantage of XML was exchanging data between unlike systems; that it would be of no help in an environment where the data was not meant to be shared.

The biggest downside I saw is the overhead. Instead of birth date taking 10 characters, 2003/10/07 it can take many more: 

<DOB>
   <DBYear>2003</DBYear>
   <DBMonth>10</ DBMonth>
   <DBDay>07</ DBDay>
</DOB>

[download]
Is it worth it? It wasn’t for me.

YMMV

-theo-
(so many nodes and so little time ... )
Note: All opinions are untested, unless otherwise stated

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Re: XML as part of the Web app warchest....
by davis (Vicar) on Oct 07, 2003 at 15:13 UTC

    The biggest downside I saw is the overhead. Instead of birth date taking 10 characters, 2003/10/07 it can take many more:
    Disk space is cheap, and any more than a few XML files would compress extremely well. Even if the data isn't intended to be shared, then the advantage that the data is pretty easy to read might be enough of an advantage to use XML.


    davis
    It's not easy to juggle a pregnant wife and a troubled child, but somehow I managed to fit in eight hours of TV a day.
[reply]

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom