Re: [xml-dev] XML not ideal for Big Data

[Uche Ogbuji <uche@ogbuji.net>]

On Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 11:15 AM, Koya, Suresh (Suresh Koya) <suresh.koya@hp.com> wrote:

I  too agree with you. I guess the idea which started the markup movement was to make data human readable along with being machine readable. Someone should probably think once before XMLizing a 50 MB size stream, if any average person(I cannot) can read through a 50 MB document. The parsers are meant to be human interpreters for machines and optimized(fast) xml parsers are like speed readers. In this aspect the machines could be as (in)efficient as us. That is why the parsers limitation on data size always looked good to me.

Absolutely!  I personally have always advocated such a "look" test:

http://adtmag.com/articles/2004/03/01/keep-your-xml-clean.aspx

"The next time you develop an XML design, print out a sample document and hold it up to a colleague for a quick read. If he or she develops a headache from trying to figure out what it means, consider this an omen of the pain that maintaining the format will cause in the future."

Not too many of us can avoid a headache from a 50MB pile of raw data, and angle brackets do nothing to help.

-- 
Uche Ogbuji                       http://uche.ogbuji.net
Founding Partner, Zepheira        http://zepheira.com
Linked-in profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ucheogbuji
Articles: http://uche.ogbuji.net/tech/publications/
Friendfeed: http://friendfeed.com/uche
Twitter: http://twitter.com/uogbuji
Join me at Balisage:
* http://www.balisage.net/