I’m trying to catch up to my overflowing Google reader, and have just seen Uncle Bob’s posting on XML “The Hidiocy of XML Languages“:
Look, writing in XML is hideous. It’s wordy, it’s error-prone, it’s arcane, it’s redundant, it’s redundant, it’s redundant, it’s… HIDEOUS! To make matters worse, we have been embedding OTHER languages INSIDE this horrible container. EGAD! YIKES! ZOUNDS! FORSOOTH! This is just plain nuts, stupid, idiotic, retarded, poo-poo-headed, silliness!
All I can say is AMEN!!! And it just gets better.
I’ve never been a fan of XML. Yes, it does have benefits as a data transfer mechanism, though even that is questionable. Take the ACORD standards as an example. This is the standard schema for defining interoperability standards for Insurance Company operations/transactions (Quotes, etc). Fair enough, this can be very useful for companies to work together. However, each insurance company has it’s own way of doing business, and may not use the schema in the same way. ie a Policy for this company (or even Line of Business) may not mean the same as for another. So, how interoperable is that?
XML sucks. Its better than binary, or — shudder — ASN.1, but it still sucks, and should not be used as a language. Thank you Uncle Bob for your rant! It makes me that maybe, just maybe, I’m not as insane as people think when I tell them that I hate writing logic in XML.
Frank | 31-May-07 at 11:52 am | Permalink
So suggest something better asshat.
I’d make an argument on why XML has its place, but I won’t bother. It’s not like you’d listen anyway. You, like Uncle Bob, have already made up your mind to find every possible flaw in XML because it doesn’t strike your fancy. So instead of coming up with something better, you complain that everyone else is using a tool that goes against your personal taste. Get a life.
Matt | 31-May-07 at 12:30 pm | Permalink
Thank you for the remarks Frank. You pose some very good questions.
What is better than XML? Well, that really depends on the situation. There is no one thing that is better than XML, just like there is no one thing that is better than Java or Ruby or Fortran or COBOL.
Where XML shines is at the message protocol level. It has overhead, but is human readable, and that makes debugging nicer.
However, as my post indicates, there are still issues with XML and interop, though really this is an issue with communication in general. People have different meanings for the same noun/entity/etc, and it becomes a semantics problem. Not necessarily XML’s fault, though it really annoys me when I see people saying that XML will lead the way to interop bliss… bullshit. People will do that. A small group of smart people will get together and figure out how to make 2+ disparate systems mash together and work.
Yes, I do not like XML, I’ve said that clearly many times on my blog. You don’t have to like the fact that I don’t like it. Thats OK too. In the end we all have our preferences.