Saturday, March 16, 2013

XML is Too Complicated

I can't believe I just said that 'XML is too complicated', but it must be true!  By capital XML I mean, xml, xsl, xsd, and xpath or xquery.  Raw xml is easy enough just angle brackets.  But everything else is so marginally supported.  Why? Must be too complicated? Right?
Let's compare xml to json as a base. Json is basically a key value pairs and arrays. Xml, the object model (DOM); namespaces, elements, and attributes. But each of these needs to be broken down into other parts.  Elements alone have start tag, tag name, end tag, text, and children.  The permutations start to really add up, making full implementation of the supporting technologies difficult.  I find xml easy and intuitive, but I don't build the tools to support xml.  The full lack of support is an impedance on workflow today.

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