> What is XML good at? (by good I mean better than alternatives like JSON, YAML, HAML, etc)
It has a single standard way of doing schemata that all the tools support, which is great. The maven pom.xml format is a much clearer way to specify a dependency than most of the alternatives (which often use an excessively clever concise form), and has really good autocomplete when editing it in eclipse (because eclipse understands the schema and so can offer autocomplete based on the elements that make sense at that point in the document).
If XML had just not bothered with namespaces I think it would have worked really well.
It has a single standard way of doing schemata that all the tools support, which is great. The maven pom.xml format is a much clearer way to specify a dependency than most of the alternatives (which often use an excessively clever concise form), and has really good autocomplete when editing it in eclipse (because eclipse understands the schema and so can offer autocomplete based on the elements that make sense at that point in the document).
If XML had just not bothered with namespaces I think it would have worked really well.
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