Zac Bowling’s Blog

I’ve gotten a lot heat over using XML in my applcations from a few “old school” developers I know. I wish to dispell some of the misconceptions and maybe prove XMLs worth. Some of the arguments I hear are mostly from people who haven’t used any or very little of the XML based technologies. Some haven’t given it more then a glance and already discounted it without really using it because all they see is its just a bunch of tags.

“XML is slowwer then if you use a CSV or dBase files because everything has to parsed by its tags. CSV files can store anything XML can and run a lot return data faster.”

That only is partialy true. XML does have to phrase every tag. The idea however that a CSV file can do more is wrong, and mostly based the idea of all data being in simple type structures. I normally ask those people who say that, to go define an HTML page in a CSV. They normaly get quiet about that time. The fact is that XML is not used to store large amounts of repative data, but smaller more complex types of data, but at the same time, be simple anough to define those complex types so everyone can read them (applications and even people if need be). XML can even use someone the concepts of OOP and use type structures, inheritance, polymorphisim, and type classing to really add depth and add a structured layer to all your documents.