XML overuse? (was Re: Python to XML to Python conversion)

[Peter Hansen]

François Pinard wrote:
> 
> [Peter Hansen]
> 
> > XML was adapted from SGML to meet several key goals.  Among those was
> > the desire to make a format which was easily human-readable and editable
> > using simple tools like text editors.
> 
> I do not think so.  

>From http://www.idealliance.org/standards_xml.asp, picked arbitrarily
from a Google search for "xml design goals":

  The design goals for XML are: 

  XML shall be straightforwardly usable over the Internet. 
  XML shall support a wide variety of applications. 
  XML shall be compatible with SGML. 
  It shall be easy to write programs which process XML documents. 
  The number of optional features in XML is to be kept to the absolute 
    minimum, ideally zero. 
  XML documents should be human-legible and reasonably clear. 
  The XML design should be prepared quickly. 
  The design of XML shall be formal and concise. 
  XML documents shall be easy to create. 
  Terseness in XML markup is of minimal importance. 

I believe "human-legible and reasonably clear", and "easy to create"
pretty much cover what I said above.

-Peter