I think I understand your point. I only brought parsing into play to illustrate that XML is complicated, not because it's my general focus. I wouldn't classif

I think I understand your point. I only brought parsing into play to illustrate that XML is complicated, not because it's my general focus. I wouldn't classify namespaces, etc. as additional languages and tools, but that's beside the point. > in your application nothing prevents you from using a dumbed-down version of XML That's right. And if XML were exactly that, then there wouldn't be so many people frustrated with it. Unfortunately, in a professional work context, you don't always have control over whether it stays within this manageable subset. Sometimes the less pleasant aspects simply come into play, and then you have to deal with the whole complicated mess.