W3C launches Binary XML Packaging

Spy der Mann writes "Remember the recent discussion on Binary XML? Well, there's news. The W3C just released the specs for XML-binary optimized packaging (XOP). In summary, they take binary data out of the XML, and put it in a separate section using MIME-Multipart. You can read the press release and the testimonials from MS, IBM and BEA."

Comments

Re:nothing else to work on?

[firewrought]

Chip fabrication is hard.
Let's make general purpose CPU's that can be programmed. It's easier!
No wait... let's use PICs so that our {small electronics project} doesn't need an ATX case.
Ah yeah that's the ticket - the best of both worlds!
</sarcasm>

Binary XML *does* give you the best of both worlds, for the most part. Remember that binary formats, in general, are bad because a human cannot infer much about the information they represent or how to change that information w/o violating the format. Remember that XML gives a programmer many advantages over other text-based formats, including the ability to create new languages without having to write a parser; the ability to mix vocabularies from multiple languages; and the ability to use a wide array of pre-existing tools (XSLT, xpath, text editors, schema validators, etc.) on newly minted data models.

Binary XML is a logical compromise: there's a greater risk of conflicting implementations and it will be more difficult to repair a corrupted file, but--in general--programmers will still be able to see the underlying data model by reading the binary glob through DOM or by dumping it to text. And it will be much more efficent.

Note also that this spec is rather rote: no real "chasing" done here.