Programmers still rule computers
While markup lowers the boundaries to getting information into and out of computers, programmers still rule the roost. Remember how offended programmers could get when HTML was described as a "programming language"? Wow.
An example of orthodoxy
"Strings are poor substitutes for other value types. When a piece of data comes into a program from a file, from the network, or from keyboard input, it is often in string form. There is a natural tendency to leave it this way, but this tendency is justified only if it really is textual in nature. If it's numeric, it should be translated into the appropriate numeric type, such as
BigInteger. If it's the answer to a yes-no question, it should be translated into a
boolean. More generally, if there's an appropriate value type, whether primitive or object reference, you should use it; if there isn't, you should write one. While this advice may seem obvious, it is often violated." - Joshua Bloch, Effective Java, 152 (Addison-Wesley, 2001)
Working on XML
A lot of developers follow the advice above. They take information out of XML as quickly as possible, converting it to internal types.
Working with XML
Developers who want to preserve XML's flexibility may want to make an extra effort to work with markup in its original textual form, rather than locking information into less-flexible program structures.
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