XML Considered Harmful

[Christian Gollwitzer]

Am 22.09.21 um 16:52 schrieb Michael F. Stemper:
> On 21/09/2021 19.30, Eli the Bearded wrote:
>> Yes, CSV files can model that. But it would not be my first choice of
>> data format. (Neither would JSON.) I'd probably use XML.
> 
> Okay. 'Go not to the elves for counsel, for they will say both no
> and yes.' (I'm not actually surprised to find differences of opinion.)

It is wrong, CSV has no model of hierarchical data. A CSV file is a 2d 
table, just like a database table or an Excel sheet.

You can /layer/ high-dimensional data on top of a 2D table, there is the 
relational algebra theory behind this, but it is wrong (or misleading at 
best) to say that CSV can model hierarchical data.

It's the same as saying "CSV supports images". Of course it doesn't, its 
a textfile, but you could encode a JPEG as base64 and then put this 
string into the cell of a CSV table. That definitely isn't what a sane 
person would understand as "support".

	Christian