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W3C launches Binary XML Packaging

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the huge-config-files-scared dept.

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."

4 of 239 comments (clear)

  1. Testimonial: Dancin Santa by Dancin_Santa · · Score: 5, Funny

    I was drownding in debt. There was no where to turn. My wife left me, my friends all left me. Even my dog, he left me too. I had to do something.

    That's when I found Binary XML. They were able to help with the debt. They got the creditors off my back and got me back on my feet.

    Thanks Binary XML!

    (I thought this was going to be about a standardization of compressing XML files that got rid of the excess bloat in the markup.)

  2. Uhhh... by Phexro · · Score: 5, Informative

    Unless I'm horribly misreading the specification, it appears to be a way to package up XML documents and binary data that they reference into a neat package with MIME - not a way to convert a (text) XML document into a binary one.

  3. This is NOT binary XML by IHateSlashDot · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I can't believe all of the replies making fun of this because they think it's a binary representation of XML. Didn't anyone read the RFC that was referenced in the summary?

    This is simply a way to reference binary data from within an XML document and to have that binary data included in the same payload (using MIME).

    Passing binary data in XML is a big problem. Everybody just invents their own method of doing it (although most are just variations on the theme presented here).

    There is a need for this specicification but it is not ground breaking or even particularly /. newsworth.

  4. Re:More bloat! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So did I. Then I looked at that example [w3.org] and my heart sank. What the hell! 12 lines of bloated crap text turned into 46+ lines of worse bloated crap!

    The examples given in the article haven't included the binary data for berevity. The problem that exists now is that binary data has to be encoded into a form compatible with the charset of the document, which usually means base64. This increases the size of binary documents enourmously (think twice), and also requires CPU cycles to encode it.

    Being able to send the binary data in a seperate MIME payload means it doesn't need to be encoded in this manner which is a big help for any reasonable sized binary resources. It also means they become first class MIME objects and can have associated headers which provides additional benefits.