Courtesy of Rich Enbody, this blog post, How XML Threatens Big Data -- Dataspora, elicited a big "duh" from me.

You don't solve any of the semantic problems with data by elaborating on a textual format. You may bring them into the light, but along with the visibility comes "bureaucracy" -- technology, acronyms, proponents and opponents, and the usual cruft.

I find the "embrace lazy data modeling" rule rather funny, personally, because it is the data-world's counterpart to agile methodologies in software development: solve problems you actually have, rather than all the potential ones you see.

I do like the "15 minute" rule: if I can't parse some useful information out of your data format in 15 minutes, you've done something very wrong.

--titus

Legacy Comments

Posted by Carl T. on 2009-08-26 at 10:36.

The decision to go with XML for big data is often a strategic one made
without the dev's or dba's consent.  Ease of use and common sense
often aren't big factors in these decisions.    At that point, it's up
to the end user to get creative with text processing to circumvent the
performance limitations (not that I've ever done this sort of thing .
. .).    But yes, it does suck.    Carl T.

Posted by Harry on 2009-08-26 at 17:26.

"I do like the "15 minute" rule: if I can't parse some useful
information out of your data format in 15 minutes, you've done
something very wrong."    +1