.NET Security and Cryptography

XML Encryption

Just one of the many nice features of XML is that it tends to be rather human readable when compared to most traditional proprietary or legacy binary data formats. Just open an Excel spreadsheet in Notepad and try to figure out what is meant by all the proprietary formatting codes. In XML, all those human-meaningful tags sprinkled throughout the document tend to visually jump out and help you to interpret the underlying meaning. This can go a long way in helping you sort your way through the complex morass that is so typical of most structured data that is processed by complex applications. The readability of XML can therefore often be a great benefit to programmers, who must frequently read XML input and output to help guide them ...