There are hilariously terrible protocol designers out there, and too often nobody with taste manages to stop them. The EDI standards are often cited as examples

There are hilariously terrible protocol designers out there, and too often nobody with taste manages to stop them. The EDI standards are often cited as examples of how much worse than XML it could get. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDIFACT#Example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDIFACT#Example