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I still see people, in 2024, writing new software and using XML as the data format. I don't have an example offhand, but I recently saw a hobby game engine usin

I still see people, in 2024, writing new software and using XML as the data format. I don't have an example offhand, but I recently saw a hobby game engine using XML to store its engine-specific game object/scene data. Personally, I like to use TOML for anything that is likely to also be edited by humans and JSON or binary for something that will only ever be used by machines.

freedomben 3y ago
in the Java world? I've seen a couple XMLs on newer software but all from Java ecosystem, where there are substantial libraries in existence and the authors are already super familiar with it to the point where it's basically "free" Everything else is YAML, JSON, or TOML (especially in the rust world)
- dkersten 3y ago
  > in the Java world? No. The most recent one I saw was a (hobbyist) C++ game engine that used XML to declare game entities and such.
novagameco 3y ago
I like to use XML for UI markup, similar to html
CharlesW 3y ago
> I still see people, in 2024, writing new software and using XML as the data format. Because it's a pragmatic choice with a large, mature, proven ecosystem. (Not that there's anything wrong with TOML for INI-type use cases.) I think some readers are missing the point of Tim's article. He's not saying "don't use XML" — he's saying "don't invent XML languages…unless you have to". > "The smartest thing to do would be to find a way to use one of the perfectly good markup languages that have been designed and debugged and have validators and authoring software and parsers and generators and all that other good stuff. Here’s a radical idea: don’t even think of making your own language until you’re sure that you can’t do the job using one of the Big Five: XHTML, DocBook, ODF, UBL, and Atom." Presumably, he'd recommend using RSS and OPML as well if those fit your use case.

freedomben 3y ago

in the Java world? I've seen a couple XMLs on newer software but all from Java ecosystem, where there are substantial libraries in existence and the authors are already super familiar with it to the point where it's basically "free" Everything else is YAML, JSON, or TOML (especially in the rust world)

dkersten 3y ago
> in the Java world? No. The most recent one I saw was a (hobbyist) C++ game engine that used XML to declare game entities and such.

novagameco 3y ago

I like to use XML for UI markup, similar to html

CharlesW 3y ago

> I still see people, in 2024, writing new software and using XML as the data format. Because it's a pragmatic choice with a large, mature, proven ecosystem. (Not that there's anything wrong with TOML for INI-type use cases.) I think some readers are missing the point of Tim's article. He's not saying "don't use XML" — he's saying "don't invent XML languages…unless you have to". > "The smartest thing to do would be to find a way to use one of the perfectly good markup languages that have been designed and debugged and have validators and authoring software and parsers and generators and all that other good stuff. Here’s a radical idea: don’t even think of making your own language until you’re sure that you can’t do the job using one of the Big Five: XHTML, DocBook, ODF, UBL, and Atom." Presumably, he'd recommend using RSS and OPML as well if those fit your use case.