> 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.
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.