> It gives too many levers. I don't agree that the horrible XML example is the result of that. There's a simple semantic difference between attributes and el

> It gives too many levers. I don't agree that the horrible XML example is the result of that. There's a simple semantic difference between attributes and elements in XML: * there's only one instance per attribute * attributes are atomic (i.e. have no children) * attributes are order-independent So whenever your data is atomic, the order in which it appears doesn't matter, and you only want one instance, (per element) you'd use an attribute. The reasoning behind this is to enforce basic semantic rules without having to resort to complex schemas like XSD or RELAX NG. It has nothing to do with OOP: it's just a very basic tool for enforcing basic constraints. As with every tool, it can be misused or ignored. The XML example is the result of incompetence and/or lack of coherence in data modelling and processing (judging from the micro services mentioned), not a weakness of XML as such, IMO.