XML - Do you really like using it?

My question to the users of this forum is:

Do you think that XML is the is the greatest thing since sliced bread or do you think it is difficult to use, parse, extract information out of, describe complex data structures, etc?

Neither but I do like it.

XML provides a neat solution a problem. How can data be transfered between different users, systems etc. and be portable? And how can we fairly easily parse this data?

XML has its issues but it beats the heck out of delimited or positional files from different sources with different formats. And with tools like XSLT we can produce a file with a single structure and easily reformat it for different users, a capability we really like.

For my company XML removes a lot of file format issues and lets programmers concentrate on the fundamental logic of the task at hand. No more custom file parsing or formatting here!

Mike,

We have utilized XML in order to create specific QAXL (Quantum Art eXtensible Language).

QAXL objects are software modules that encapsulate business logic within a specific application. This object-oriented architecture allows for adding and changing business logic and processes to any Quantum Art application without changing the application source code. When a new object is developed, it is simply registered with Quantum Art core platform and is ready for use by other components within an application. This flexible modular approach allows rapid development through object reuse.

Quantum Art uses the flexibility and openness of Allaire's Cold Fusion to serve QAXL objects and presentation templates on the interface level. By introducing QAXL object to Cold Fusion, Quantum Art converts it from a scripting environment to an object-oriented environment, which allows for rapid development and easy integration with systems of any type. In run time, QAXL objects are cached by Quantum Art's caching engine, which results in significant performance increases.

There is more information over here if you find it interesting:
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Alexander Bulgakov
Quantum Art
aleksandrbulgakov@artq.com
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