Comparison of data-serialization formats: Difference between revisions

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==Advantages==

* XML provides a basic syntax that can be used to share information between different kinds of computers, different applications, and different organizations. XML data is stored in plain text format.<ref name="w3chowxmluse">{{cite web|url=http://www.w3schools.com/Xml/xml_usedfor.asp |title=How Can XML be Used? |publisher=W3schools.com |date= |accessdate=2009-07-31}}</ref> This software- and hardware-independent way of storing data allows different incompatible systems to share data without needing to pass them through many layers of conversion. This also makes it easier to expand or upgrade to new operating systems, new applications, or new browsers, without losing any data.

* With XML, your data can be available to all kinds of "reading machines" (handheld computers, voice machines, news feeds, etc), and make it more available for blind people, or people with other disabilities.<ref name="w3chowxmluse" />

* XML provides a gateway for communication between applications, even applications on wildly different systems. As long as applications can share data (through HTTP, file sharing, or another mechanism), and have an XML parser, they can share structured information that is easily processed. Databases can trade tables, business applications can trade updates, and document systems can share information.

* It supports [[Unicode]], allowing almost any information in any written human language to be communicated.