Re: Request: Techniques for reducing the size of XML instances

[Duane Nickull <duane@xmlglobal.com>]

"Roger L. Costello" wrote:
> 
> Hi Folks,
> 
> Does anyone have a summary of techniques for reducing the size of XML
> instances (as would be required in limited bandwidth applications)?
>>>>>>>>>
Use smaller fonts??? ;-)

Seriously, we have wrestled with this question before and found that
until your XML instance gets above 500 kb,  the lag is primarily
initiating the connection and related to transport layer inefficiency. 
For the sake of argument,  say you are measuring your time between
applications and including the time it takes to parse the incoming
message,  things like platform (CPU, RAM), parser efficiency (language
etc) and parsing method will likely be candidates to look at.  The
actual structure of the message (number of layers of elements)
theoretically may affect your speed too on larger documents.  I have
never seen any numbers that indicate this is consequential though.
 
> XML instance minus tags:
> Are there techniques for reducing the size of XML instances by simply
> stripping off the tags (thus maintaining an ASCII document)?  [It is not
> clear to me how the receiver of such a tagless document would regenerate
> the original instance document.]
>>>>>>>>>
Yikes!!  Sounds a lot like EDI.  I would not favour this approach. 
First of all <XML_grandstanding> it is no longer a well formed XML
document </xml_grandstanding>.  Secondly,  I am sure that you'll find
the overhead of stripping off elements, then rebuilding them (assuming
you even can) in the receiving end outweighs the benefits in the
transport layer.

I guess it depends on what your endpoints are for measuring efficiency.

First thought:  Mo' bandwidth!!  Invalid for some wireless appls though.

Good luck!

Duane 
-- 
Duane Nickull, CTO - Founder
XML Global Technologies, Inc.
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