What is XML for?

[Dave Winer]

>>XML opens the doors to a lot of possibilities for more sophisticated
storage (in object stores, for instance) than the simple crappy file
systems we all know and hate.  

We have one of those object storage systems. I agree that it's far more
powerful a way to program than storing data in individual files, and can do
lots of things that would be very awkward or inefficient in an RDBMS (like
hierarchic content management). However, no matter how much work we put
into a procedural XML-based programming interface, it's still more
efficient and easier to work with the data using the native programming
interface.

After a year of working with XML as a database storage environment, we now
have gravitated to using it as an interchange format. It's just too
inefficient to use it any other way. To do it procedurally would be just so
we could say "we're cool because we do everything in XML." Coolness just
isn't that important.

BTW, I support Simon's effort to keep the whining grandmas at bay (with
apologies to grandmas). The sky isn't falling. Don't worry be happy.

Dave


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