Ever invented your own syntax for an intermediate data format? Ever see it failing? Well, XML will spare you that. It is widely accepted and supported, and much more capable than any of its simple-minded cousins, like CSV or the proprietary intermediate data formats of some of the big database vendors. And it spares you to learn SGML. Well, unless you want to learn something about the ultimate data language out there ;-).

Christian Lemburg
Brainbench MVP for Perl
http://www.brainbench.com