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Buzzword compliance

This year, for instance, a programmer can always tack the phrase “and I’m thinking of incorporating some XML functionality” onto a project summary to explain why he’ll need an extra week, account for a missed deadline, or impress a superior. (source)

I read this, and realised quite how true it was – XML is so the new black, darling. I myself have to confess that I’ve fallen to the allure of XML, as my JCR minutes system stores the minutes internally as XML documents, parsed and converted by the excellent SimpleXML library included with PHP5. No doubt Inkling (if I ever get started on it) will use XML in some shape or form as well. I’m not entirely sure why it’s so useful – probably because it’s simple, flexible and, while quite verbose, extremely compressible by your favourite compression method.

One Response to “Buzzword compliance”

    • Gravatar for Jonty
    • From Jonty
    • Wednesday 25 August 2004 at 20:02

    I once read some good interview advice that made me chuckle …

    Interviewer So then, have you ever had much experience with XML? Now take a deep breathe, and with complete conviction say ‘Absolutely’ then get out of there and look up what the heck s/he’s talking about.

    XML certainly is fantastic, though. My latest little (actually, very large) project takes real-time XML weather data and utilises it generate an accurate panorama, also constructed via XML through the wonders of SVG.

    Now sure, XML does have its downsides, but I certainly believe it’s here to stay, especially with the industry heavy weights adopting it (*Jonty wonders if that makes him an ‘industry heavyweight’ …).

    View a beta shot of Jonty’s panorama.