XML in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Abstracting XML Away

Developers who want to take advantage of XML’s cross-platform benefits but have no patience for the details of markup can use various tools that rely on XML but don’t require direct exposure to XML’s structures. Web Services, mentioned in Chapter 16, can be seen as a move in this direction. You can still touch the XML directly if you need to, but toolkits make it easier to avoid doing so.

These kinds of applications are generally built as a layer on top of event- or tree-based processing, presenting their own API to the underlying information. We feel that in most cases, the underlying XML data is as clear and accessible as it can be. Additional layers of abstraction above the XML simply add to the overall complexity and rigidity of the application.