Kissaki comments on The lost art of XML

The lost art of XML — mmagueta (marcosmagueta.com)

submitted 9 months ago by Kissaki@programming.dev to c/programming@programming.dev

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There exists a peculiar amnesia in software engineering regarding XML. Mention it in most circles and you will receive knowing smiles, dismissive waves, the sort of patronizing acknowledgment reserved for technologies deemed passé. "Oh, XML," they say, as if the very syllables carry the weight of obsolescence. "We use JSON now. Much cleaner."

[–] Kissaki@programming.dev [S] 5 points 9 months ago (5 children)

In XML the practice to approximate arrays is to put the index as an attribute. It’s incredibly gross.

I don't think I've seen that much if ever.

Typically, XML repeats tag names. Repeating keys are not possible in JSON, but are possible in XML.

<items>
  <item></item>
  <item></item>
  <item></item>
</items>

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[+] Feyd@programming.dev 10 points 9 months ago* (4 children)

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[–] Kissaki@programming.dev [S] 6 points 9 months ago* (3 children)

https://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xml-infoset-20040204/

[children] An ordered list of child information items, in document order.

Does this not cover it?

Do you mean if you were to follow XML standard but not XML information set standard?

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[+] Feyd@programming.dev 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

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[–] Kissaki@programming.dev [S] 1 point 9 months ago* (1 child)

If the XML parser parses into an ordered representation (the XML information set), isn't it then the deserializer's choice how they map that to the programming language/type system they are deserializing to? So in a system with ordered arrays it would likely map to those?

If XML can be written in an ordered way, and the parsed XML information set has ordered children for those, I still don't see where order gets lost or is impossible [to guarantee] in XML.