When to use XML
I remember, in 1998, an old boss of mine sending us a presentation on XML, and how it was going to become the next big thing in information exchange. Well, things have certainly moved along since then, and XML is all over the place.
XML is great. It’s human readable, application neutral and self-describing. It’s also being used by everyone and their dog for anything possible. While I’m quite the XML zealot (it has done wonders for us in the OGC and OSGEO communities), my experiences have taught me to use XML judiciously. Sometimes a plain text config file is fine. Sometimes binary encoding is needed (especially for voluminous data).
I recently reacquianted myself with a web architecture document from the W3C folks. Section 4.5.1 provides some sound suggestions of when to apply XML to your application(s). Happy reading!
