XML is to data what System.Object is to the .Net Framework class library.
I'm not sure where you got your definition of XML, but the most salient
character in the acronym is the letter "X" (eXtensible). From the W3C
(
http://www.w3.org/), XML is defined:
"Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a simple, very flexible text format
derived from SGML (ISO 8879). Originally designed to meet the challenges of
large-scale electronic publishing, XML is also playing an increasingly
important role in the exchange of a wide variety of data on the Web and
elsewhere."
In fact, XML is just the root specification of literally hundreds of Markup
Language Specifications that are used in all kinds of activities, such as
XHTML, XPath (a specification for naviagating XML documents), XQuery (a
specification for extracting data from XML documents and collections), XSD
(Schema definition Language), XSL and XSLT (Used for transforming XML
documents of any type to any other type of documents), XPROC (Xml
Piplelining language), SOAP, RSS, XFORMS, XLink, XAML, XBASE, and an
ever-expanding repertoire of others.
So, far from quietly dying, XML is thriving, growing, and expanding, for all
the right reasons.
That said, it should be used when appropriate, and not used when not
appropriate. How do you know when it is appropriate, and when it is not
appropriate? By understanding what it is, and what it is best used for.
--
HTH,
Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP
Ministry of Software Development
http://unclechutney.blogspot.com
I just flew in from Chicago with
a man with a wooden leg named Smith
who shot an elephant in my pajamas.
So I bit him.
"heinz" <bi******@gmail.comwrote in message
news:11**********************@i42g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
XML is supposed to 'separate data from presentation and be humanly
readable'.
1) An XML file cannot accept many characters as data. eg " ; < all
have to be filtered. One or two lines of carefully selected data is OK
though. But not loads of real world data.
2) Its not so easy to make relations between 'tables'. A database does
it better
3) XPath is basically another version of SQL.
4) Much practical real world data is lots of text (eg news articles),
pictures (which is binary data) which xml cannot store easily.
5) Its often not very humanly readable, especially with complex
schemas.
So, I can understand why some are now skirting round XML.