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- From: Olivier DUBUISSON <Olivier.Dubuisson@francetelecom.fr>
- To: Kay Michael <Michael.Kay@icl.com>
- Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 17:19:57 +0200
Kay Michael wrote:
>
> > > That raises the question, why is XML better than ASN.1?
>
> Largely, in my view, because it is human-readable and writable. This single
> and simple difference makes XML instantly accessible and usable where ASN.1
> has always seemed (at first sight) complex and impenetrable. XML gives
> instant results.
What is not readable in ASN.1? (I mean **ASN.1**, not BER).
It seems to be that it's just a matter of aesthetics: you prefer
angle brackets to curly brackets ;-)
> Add to that, XML parsers are free and run on any platform whereas ASN.1
> parsers cost money
Some tools can be found in the public domain (but less than the number
of tools for XML, I agree).
I'm not sure that freeness is a good argument. See for example UMTS
(Third Generation mobile phones) where ASN.1 is used a lot. Do you
think that equipment vendors or telcos can't afford an ASN.1 compiler
when one knows that UMTS will cost more than GSM? Same for other
application domains like RFID (Radio-Frequency IDentification),
Intelligent transportation systems, Intelligent networks, etc.
And what they buy is not only a parser, but a compiler that produces
very efficient encoders/decoders?
No religious war here, just trying to say that you cannot only compare
both syntaxes without having a look at what is associated with them.
> and had to be ported to your favourite flavour of UNIX...
For example, OSS Nokalva (http://www.oss.com) delivers its compiler for
more than 150 operating systems (amongst which you can find a large
variety of embedded systems).
--
Olivier DUBUISSON
france telecom R&D
_ DTL/MSV - 22307 Lannion Cedex - France
( ) tel: +33 2 96 05 38 50 - fax: +33 2 96 05 39 45
/.\/ --------------------------------------
\_/\ Site ASN.1 : http://asn1.elibel.tm.fr/
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