Re: Less verbose XML

Bob Steele (bsteele@tdiinc.com)
Tue, 12 May 1998 10:03:15 -0700


David Megginson wrote:

> Here are the same files compressed with gzip -9 (savings are relative
> to the uncompressed version with full end tags):
>
> With full end tags: 994,835 bytes (74.4% saving)
> With short end tags: 988,976 bytes (74.5% saving)

I suggest you also experiment with DTD's designed for the data transfer of
objects. With tall inheritance hierarchies in my samples, my generated XML
documents grow very large and very repetitive. This is exactly what compression
algorithms such as LZW are designed to eliminate. I have found compressions as
high as 700%. This does not mean that the resulting compressed documents are
small but it does help make practical the transfer of data in XML.

Note: The size of the document is influenced by my choice of element over XML
attribute encoding for simple types. This was done for symmetry.

bob

--
<!--
Bob Steele, TDI Inc.
5000 Old Ironsides Drive
Santa Clara, CA 95054, USA
bsteele@tdiinc.com  http://www.tdiinc.com
Tel: 1-408-330-3404 , or toll free 1-888-544-5511
Fax: 1-408-330-3444
-->