Abandoning XML

Several writers have recently suggested that we can do without
structured attributes by allowing each application to hide some
structure inside what looks to the XML parser like an unstructured
attribute, perhaps using a LISP-like syntax.  Others have suggested that
we can greatly reduce the size of documents by using
comma-separated-values in element contents, rather than explicit tags
within.  This is foolishness.  The whole point of XML is to have an
infinitely-extensible, self-describing syntax that allows the structure
of a document to be determined by a very simple, regular parser.
Pointing out that structural limitations in public XML can be solved by
private hacks just gets us farther away from this goal.

Received on Monday, 19 May 1997 16:38:23 UTC