Well, yes, that too. I can't see a convincing reason why the data in question here should ever have been represented in XML. I've got no serious problem with XML when it's being used as a markup language – it's no worse than HTML and easier to write third-party data-mining scripts for – but using it as a general framework in which to represent hierarchical data and (worse still) procedural programs is Just Wrong.
It could be worse. Our software has at least 7 different lex/yacc parsers in it for various file formats, most of which have slightly underspecced syntax and vastly underspecced semantics. XML would by comparison be a blessing: one, and only one parser, from which data can be extracted easily by OO code. The files would be huge, but the existing formats aren't all that great sizewise.
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Well, yes, that too. I can't see a convincing reason why the data in question here should ever have been represented in XML. I've got no serious problem with XML when it's being used as a markup language – it's no worse than HTML and easier to write third-party data-mining scripts for – but using it as a general framework in which to represent hierarchical data and (worse still) procedural programs is Just Wrong.