[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home]
[By Thread]
[By Date]
RE: [xml-dev] Xml file sizes
- To: "Byarlay, Wayne A." <wab@...>,<xml-dev@...>
- Subject: RE: [xml-dev] Xml file sizes
- From: "Bornholtz, Tim" <Tim.Bornholtz@...>
- Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 15:40:50 -0500
- Thread-index: AcXu0iIHSeCyXeIlSGOAk314P6V70gACAkxg
- Thread-topic: Xml file sizes
Yes,
as Nathan pointed out there are many reasons why *not* to use XML but let me
give you a few reasons why we use XML. Judging by your email address and a
quick trip to Google you may be interested in some of the things that we're
doing.
At the
US Department of Education we're using XML extensively to transmit data between
our trading partners. In my area, Federal Student Aid, this is every
higher education school in the US as well as lenders, guaranty agencies and
state and federal agencies. The rest of the Department of Education is
using XML to transmit data between state agencies for educational grants and
many other programs. Schools are also using XML to transmit data among
themselves and their own trading partners too. These standards have been
created through the Postsecondary Education Standards Council (http://www.pesc.org).
We
standardized on XML and our own definitions for about 1,000 elements (http://fsaxmlregistry.ed.gov) so we
could get consistency throughout the entire education community. Yes, the
XML files are larger (sometimes *much* larger) than the corresponding flat
file. But the benefit of having the same definition of an element used
across financial aid, admissions and registrars, housing, and many other areas
of the campus as well as through the Pre-K to 12th grade area far outweighs the
additional processing power necessary to parse and create the XML.
So
really, the benefits to the business processes far outweighed the problems
created for the technical people.
Tim
Bornholtz
US
Department of Education
Office
of Federal Student Aid
Hello
all.
Well, an xml file has
finally shown up on my doorstep. Before last week, I only had a vague idea of
what XML was; now I've come to understand that it's a method for basically
storing data. However, something is bothering me. So, let me play devil's
advocate here.
If XML uses tags
such as <blablabla>This is my data</blablabla>, is that not a lot
of extra bytes to simply declare the end of a field?
And to take it a
step further: if I have several records, but the fields are always sequential,
such as:
<my
record>
<field1>Bubba Smith</field1>
<field2>123 Elm Street</field2>
</my
record>
<my 2nd
record>
<field1>Sally Ryder</field1>
<field2>123 Elm Street</field2>
</my 2nd
record>
...Wow, to me,
that just seems like many redundant bits of data. So, how is XML better than,
say, a file where the field headers (and footers) are
smaller?
Sorry if this
message is a waste of your time, but I am really questioning the practicality
of XML. maybe certain platforms or languages process it
faster?
wab.
|
