There exists a peculiar amnesia in software engineering regarding XML. Mention it in most circles and you will receive knowing smiles, dismissive waves, the sort of patronizing acknowledgment reserved for technologies deemed passé. “Oh, XML,” they say, as if the very syllables carry the weight of obsolescence. “We use JSON now. Much cleaner.”

  • Feyd@programming.dev
    3·
    5 hours ago

    JSON also has arrays. In XML the practice to approximate arrays is to put the index as an attribute. It’s incredibly gross.

    • Kissaki@programming.devOPEnglish
      2·
      4 hours ago

      In XML the practice to approximate arrays is to put the index as an attribute. It’s incredibly gross.

      I don’t think I’ve seen that much if ever.

      Typically, XML repeats tag names. Repeating keys are not possible in JSON, but are possible in XML.

      <items>
  <item></item>
  <item></item>
  <item></item>
</items>
      • Feyd@programming.dev
        4·
        3 hours ago

        That’s correct, but the order of tags in XML is not meaningful, and if you parse then write that, it can change order according to the spec. Hence, what you put would be something like the following if it was intended to represent an array.

        <items>
  <item index="1"></item>
  <item index="2"></item>
  <item index="3"></item>
</items>