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

submitted 2 days 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."

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[–] Feyd@programming.dev 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Information set isn't a description of XML documents, but a description of what you have that you can write to XML, or what you'd get when you parse XML.

This is the key part from the document you linked

The information set of an XML document is defined to be the one obtained by parsing it according to the rules of the specification whose version corresponds to that of the document.

This is also a great example of the complexity of the XML specifications. Most people do not fully understand them, which is a negative aspect for a tool.

As an aside, you can have an enforced order in XML, but you have to also use XSD so you can specify xsd:sequence, which adds complexity and precludes ordered arrays in arbitrary documents.

[–] Kissaki@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] Feyd@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago

You are correct that it is the deserializer's choice. You are incorrect when you imply that it is a good idea to rely on behavior that isn't enforced in the spec. A lot of people have been surprised when that assumption turns out to be wrong.