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

[Fredrik Lundh]

Jonathan Hogg wrote:

> Perhaps I'm missing something blindingly obvious here, but what benefits
> would I gain from coming up with my own format?
>
> [Other than people who have some kind of allergic reaction to XML would like
> it more.]

- readability for humans: compare Python's current syntax with
  an XML-based representation of Python's AST, or some variant
  thereof...

- readability for computers: no matter what compression you use,
  it's a lot easier for a computer to read pixels if you store them as
  bytes than if you store them as XML elements...

but between the extremes, XML wins most of the time (especially if
you stay away from SAX and DOM, and either use higher-level APIs,
or more Pythonic low-level ways to access the infoset).

but you knew that already, of course ;-)

</F>