(major snipping before and after)

>Not sure about perf but Xml serialization/deserialization is pretty damn slow. Even adding arrays one at a time is probably not that resource intensive with InProcess COM/Interop.
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>THe problem is that there are issues with serialization in FoxPro that is problematic. Some types (notably dates) need some fixup (like you can't pass empty dates) and any small error in formatting/encoding can break the whole thing down. If you're doing your own XML encoding it's even worse because the myriad of rules required for proper encoding. These things are difficult to catch sometimes because they usually don't occur until you're past the basic implementation phase.
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>Been there done that and if I can avoid XML as way to pass data between platforms I would do it. It's OK if you have the same engines handling both ends then it's easier and cleaner.
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In a way that's disappointing because that was supposed to be part of XML's appeal, as a "lingua franca" of data -- a means of passing data around in a standardized way. I'm not naive enough to believe any new technology is as good as they say it will be but it's still disappointing.