So You Say You Want to Kill XML…

Ted Neward's blog article "So You Say You Want to Kill XML…" (July 11, 2008) asserts that situations where performance is critical and endpoints are well-known and controlled are suited for binary protocols like protocol buffers and that situations where endpoints are loosely coupled and in need of maximum flexibility and interoperability are suited for XML wrapped in a SOAP or RESTful envelope. He develops this assertion by pointing out how the protocol buffer consumer is not so language neutral and is tightly coupled against the .proto file while XML documents are self-descriptive and situated to be easily manipulated by ancillary tools like XSLT and streaming parsers. Neward's purpose is to point out pros and cons of the two approaches to data interchange in order to offset the religious tendencies of some developers to always promote one over the other. He is writing to an audience of software developers familiar with ongoing heated debate over the use of these two formats.