Despite reading several books on the subject I still have no clear idea why I should bother using XML. Perhaps someone can help.

Assume the following:

Perl 5
XML libraries installed
MySQL & DBI installed

I have a system based on a USER table and MESSAGE table to store email messages.

The USER table:
USERID, USERNAME, PASSWORD

The MESSAGE table:
MSGID, ISERID, TIME, TEXT

Could someone give a simple explaination of where XML would serve a purpose here? The info is stored in a database, easy to understand SQL queries pull the info out as needed and the web pageis created in the fly.

Why use XML at all?

Thanks,
r.b.

In reply to Perl/XML/MySQL by rbottoms

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