I have to disagree with Uriel here:
I was on a project that went from using a simple scheme (Item-1-Name = ; Item-1-Price = )
to using XML. Each time I would add the feature that was desired by the Cabal of PHBs, they would think of another XML branch that they'd like to support for some other customer or system. Then it just went crazy: they wanted to hire an outside `architect` when I had been adding every feature piecemeal up until that point. Long story short, the project went over time alotment, the `architect` was an idiot, and I was laid off because the Cabal decided that they wanted to shift away from the bespoke app.
I think the most fun was waiting for the 105MiB XML file to come down from the first client to be imported; I especially loved the repeated information within each <Item> </Item> block.
I had asked to use either a web service or a simple CGI `API`, but no, it we *had* to pull from the clients. Cabal of PHBs + XML - Interest in funding design = steaming pile of manure.
On 5/21/07, Uriel <uriel99@gmail.com> wrote:
On 5/21/07, Roman Shaposhnik <rvs@sun.com> wrote:
> Seriously, though, we all hate XML so much for all the right reasons
> that we kind of forget that it can be useful. I do have a couple of
> use cases I consider XML being appropriate at. But what about you guys?
> Do you remember XML being helpful on any particular occasion?
No.
But XML creates jobs, so it must be good for the economy.
uriel
--
"No stranger to me is this wanderer: many years ago passed he by.
Zarathustra he was called; but he hath altered.
Then thou carriedst thine ashes into the mountains: wilt thou now
carry thy fire into the valleys? Fearest thou not the incendiary's
doom?
Yea, I recognize Zarathustra. Pure is his eye, and no loathing
lurketh about his mouth. Goeth he not along like a dancer?"
-- The Saint, Also Sprach Zarathustra