Processing XML with Java™: A Guide to SAX, DOM, JDOM, JAXP, and TrAX

XML as a Message Format

One of the major uses of XML is the exchange of data between heterogeneous systems. Given almost any collection of data, it's straightforward to design some XML markup that fits it. Because XML is natively supported on essentially any platform of interest, you can send data encoded in such an XML application from point A to point B without worrying about whether point A and point B agree on how many bytes there are in a float, whether ints are big-endian or little-endian, whether strings are null delimited or use an initial length byte, or any of the myriad of other issues that arise when moving data between systems. As long as both ends of the connection agree on the XML application used, they can exchange information ...