Efficient XML Interchange or EXI, the controversial binary representation of XML, is now a W3C standard. Unlike approaches which apply standard compression schemes to XML (e.g., Open Office’s XML plus ZIP), Efficient XML represents the structure of an XML document in a binary form. For some, this adds unnecessary obscurity to a format based on (somewhat) human-readable text. Others consider it a necessary step to reduce the bloat and slow processing of text XML.
The press release says: “EXI is a very compact representation of XML information, making it ideal for use in smart phones, devices with memory or bandwidth constraints, in performance sensitive applications such as sensor networks, in consumer electronics such as cameras, in automobiles, in real-time trading systems, and in many other scenarios.”
There are some things that can be done in XML but not in EXI. The W3C document says: “EXI is designed to be compatible with the XML Information Set. While this approach is both legitimate and practical for designing a succinct format interoperable with XML family of specifications and technologies, it entails that some lexical constructs of XML not recognized by the XML Information Set are not represented by EXI, either. Examples of such unrepresented lexical constructs of XML include white space outside the document element, white space within tags, the kind of quotation marks (single or double) used to quote attribute values, and the boundaries of CDATA marked sections.” Whether this is important will doubtless continue to be the subject of heated debate.
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EXI is W3C recommendation
Efficient XML Interchange or EXI, the controversial binary representation of XML, is now a W3C standard. Unlike approaches which apply standard compression schemes to XML (e.g., Open Office’s XML plus ZIP), Efficient XML represents the structure of an XML document in a binary form. For some, this adds unnecessary obscurity to a format based on (somewhat) human-readable text. Others consider it a necessary step to reduce the bloat and slow processing of text XML.
The press release says: “EXI is a very compact representation of XML information, making it ideal for use in smart phones, devices with memory or bandwidth constraints, in performance sensitive applications such as sensor networks, in consumer electronics such as cameras, in automobiles, in real-time trading systems, and in many other scenarios.”
There are some things that can be done in XML but not in EXI. The W3C document says: “EXI is designed to be compatible with the XML Information Set. While this approach is both legitimate and practical for designing a succinct format interoperable with XML family of specifications and technologies, it entails that some lexical constructs of XML not recognized by the XML Information Set are not represented by EXI, either. Examples of such unrepresented lexical constructs of XML include white space outside the document element, white space within tags, the kind of quotation marks (single or double) used to quote attribute values, and the boundaries of CDATA marked sections.” Whether this is important will doubtless continue to be the subject of heated debate.
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