"XHTML is still worth using, because it’s a transitional standard that moves us towards a pure-XML Web. XML is inherently better than SGML, because it’s simpler

"XHTML is still worth using, because it’s a transitional standard that moves us towards a pure-XML Web. XML is inherently better than SGML, because it’s simpler and stricter, and much easier to parse (once you’ve understood its rules)." This is where I have a problem. In my experience, one can either have a format designed for computers or humans. XML is badly designed for both. Humans don't like it for its unnecessary strictness (unnecessary because SGML can be parsed in a decidable fashion) and computers don't like it because of all the extraneous characters. Where does that leave XML?