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Subject: Re: [xml-dev] Re: [ubl-dev] Top 10 uses of XML in 2007
"The bottom line is that most of us rarely if ever need anything smaller or faster than XML. I think the proof of this is how much slower and larger a lot of binary file formats such as Microsoft Office's are in practice. If anyone really needed these to be smaller, they would have complained about that, irrespective of whether it's binary or not." So would you be sending an attachment of lots of XML zipped or unzipped if you sent me an example in response to this email? I guess we all optimise even without thinking about it. :-) Steve >>> Elliotte Harold <elharo@metalab.unc.edu> 19/02/07 17:43:11 >>> Stephen Green wrote: > Isn't this all just too obvious to debate? > No, it isn't. A lot of people think it is, but it's not. In fact, there just aren't the measurements to prove the advantages most people claim in general purpose scenarios. The binary folks have mostly forgotten (or never knew) the first and second rules of optimization. The first rule is don't do it. The second rule (and this one's for experts only) is don't do it without very careful measurements of exactly what it is you're trying to optimize and exactly what it is that's causing those operations to take longer. The bottom line is that most of us rarely if ever need anything smaller or faster than XML. I think the proof of this is how much slower and larger a lot of binary file formats such as Microsoft Office's are in practice. If anyone really needed these to be smaller, they would have complained about that, irrespective of whether it's binary or not. Any message that starts off with the claim that we must make XML smaller or faster by changing it to binary is suspect. That is not where informed optimization starts. Informed optimization starts with measurements of systems and demonstrations that the existing performance is inadequate for the use case. This is followed by profiling to demonstrate where the time (or size, or battery life) is actually going. Only if those two steps demonstrate that XML is actually the problem can you then reasonably consider improving or replacing it. Anybody who starts off with a claim that we have to go to binary, or for that matter starts off with any claim related to performance without those two prerequisites, is wasting our time. If there even is a problem (more often than not there isn't) it's almost never what they think it is. The only folks I've heard make any reasonably informed claims about XML issues that might suggest going to a different format are in the mobile community, and their major problem is battery life, not size. -- *Elliotte Rusty Harold elharo@metalab.unc.edu Java I/O 2nd Edition Just Published! http://www.cafeaulait.org/books/javaio2/ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0596527500/ref=nosim/cafeaulaitA/ ______________________________________________________________________ Please note the new simpler name for our website: http://www.bristol.gov.uk Our email addresses have also changed - visit http://www.bristol.gov.uk/bigchange for further details. Sign-up for our email bulletin giving news, have-your-say and event information at: http://www.bristol.gov.uk/newsdirect
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