Why do simpler formats fail in practice?

• Mixing Data with Code is Bad

• • Unportable data
  • Opens big security holes
  • This is why you want to use XML instead of Ruby, Python, PHP, etc.

• Weak Parsers

• • Bugs and security holes
  • Not internationalizable
  • This is why you don’t want to use YAML, custom file formats parsed by regular expressions, etc.