Also unlike HTML, XML has had full internationalization support through the Uni code universal character set since Day One.
XML's text format is the source of much of its strength, making the language simple and ubiquitous. But there is a downside: When highly efficient binary files are converted to XML, they balloon like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in the movie "Ghostbusters."
Author Ken North, who moderated a panel on XML's role in e-commerce at last week's XML One conference, told PC Week Labs that a 1,000-byte EDI (electronic data interchange) file grew to around 11,000 bytes when converted to the corresponding XML/EDI format.
The built-in compression that the HTTP 1.1 standard provides can dramatically shrink an XML messageÃÆ'Ã,¢Ã¢,Ã,¬"a good thing because no administrator wants the company's disk space filled with giant, mutant files.
