I use XML some, but don't have a big call for it right now. I think, like lots of technology, it's over-hyped. Yes, it does have advantages and is used a good bit, but some people act like it's the be-all and end-all data format. That's just not true. Also, they always seem to forget to tell you that you can't just automatically parse and use the XML you get. You can get some screwed up XML at times! The tools in VFP can't process all XML and there's really no tool that I know of that can just figure out any old XML someone wants to send. I've got one client that sends some really screwed up XML (coming out of .NET) that is badly structured and contains a bunch of stuff that is unnecessary, but they don't care because it's XML. Anybody should be able to process that, right? Well I do process it, but they make it unnecessarily painful. Like everything else, it takes some effort to do it right, and like everything else there are plenty of people who don't make the effort. The problem is that they can get away with it more in XML because it's "universal" and it's text (meaning there's no intrinsic structure) and it has this magic aura around it where people assume that just because it's XML it should be no problem to parse it. I'll keep using it, probably more and more, but I do get tired of the "once it's in XML, anybody should be able to parse it with no problem" attitude that some people have.

Russell Campbell


>Ok
>
>I put my hands up and say that whilst I know little about the subject I have heard a lot about XML and listened to some of its proponents saying great things about it
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>So my curiousity at this stage is to learn what VFP developers are using it for ie what sort of applications are they building which are using XML and what benefits they see from using XML over more traditional techniques
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>Any information would be greatly welcomed
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>Thanks
>
>Colin Northway