XML Goals / Why use XML ...

[ajr]

maybe you receiv tons of emails like this one, but I have two deep question for this them:

Supposing XML is a way to structure data to be displayed via HTML, :

1- How much better is XML (or what are the goals) than using a ASP server to create a HTML page with data in it ?
I mean, what XML has that the others don´t has ?

2- I´ve seen XML being used on WEB like the way to change data between a server and a front end (Java applet, Delphi/VB, HTML-browser) in a multi-tier model. How faster and secure is it than using a DCOM /CORBA technology ?


Thanks in advance for your attention.

Almir.

[Lothar Haensler]

>1- How much better is XML (or what are the goals) than using a ASP server to create a HTML page with data in it ?
I mean, what XML has that the others don´t has ?

it's not a question of better or worse. In fact you can use XML inside an ASP. No matter how you combine these "technologies", in the end you will have to produce HTML if your client is a browser.
The thing is XML is for DATA. If your data are represented in XML you can DISPLAY and use the in different forms (e.g. via XSL).

>How faster and secure is it than using a DCOM /CORBA technology ?

I don't think XML could be faster. XML data are plain human-readable text. Thus, the amout of raw data transferred between client and server will be greater than using DCOM.
Is it more secure? Well, XML doesn't care about security. Again, it's human-readable text that is transferred over the wire. If that's a problem, you have to use additional technologies, such as encryption...