Comment by eadmund
3 years ago
I think you'll find that in the beginning were M-expressions, but they were evil, and were followed by S-expressions, which were and are and ever will be good.
SGML and its descendants are okay for document markup.
XML for data (as opposed to markup) is either evil or clown-shoes-for-a-hat insane — I can’t figure out which.
JSON is simultaneously under- and over-specified, leading to systems where everything works right up until it doesn't. It shares a lot with C and Unix in this respect.
If XML for data is bad, check out XML as a programming language. I think this has cropped up a few times, one that stuck with me was as templating structures in the FutureTense app server, before being acquired by OpenMarket and they switched to JSPs or something.
Lots of <for something> <other stuff> </for> sorts of evil.