Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I worked with XML extensively for many years starting back in the 1990s. When I'm saying that namespaces add complexity to the data model I'm not complaining about them being difficult to use or understand.

>Dream on. No, you cannot. It depends on parser implementation. For example, you have two 20-digit numbers where 15 most significant digits are the same. Are these numbers the same number or a different number in JSON?

That's just a mildly interesting interoperability edge case that can be worked around. I agree that it's not good, but it is a problem on a wholly different level. XML elements not being comparable without non-local information is not an edge case and not an oversight that can be fixed or worked around. It's by design.

I'm not criticising XML for being what it is. XML tries to solve problems that JSON doesn't try to solve. But in order to do that, it had to introduce complexity that many people now reject.

Edit: I think we're talking past each other here. You are rightly criticising the JSON specification for being sloppy and incomplete. I don't dispute that. I'm comparing the models as they are _intended_ to work. And that's where XML is more complex because it tries to do more.



Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: