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> There is no direct mapping between your data structure and the XML file.

i think that's by design tbh.

it's only a big win for JSON (and YAML) because the default case works OK - but every time someone has a problem parsing numbers in JSON (because the value is bigger than Integer.MAX in the host language), this is the cause.

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Yes, I understand that (and I like XML as a format and XSLT 2.0 as a language). However, from the popularity of JSON, it seems that for most cases it's the easier choice.

Take any random REST API for example. If it returns JSON, you can integrate it more easily than if it returned XML. If you need special cases like large numbers (or date-times), you handle only those.

I'm confused? Integrating XML was fairly easy back in the day. If in a dynamic language, serialize into a DOM and then use xpath to get data out. If in a static language, parse into your objects.

With JSON, you can mostly do the same. Such that I don't necessarily see this as a huge advantage of XML, mind. Having a schema does have some advantages, though.

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