When and Why to Use XML

According to the XML Litmus Test, XML is the appropriate tool for the job if the following criteria are satisfied by choosing XML as the data representation format for a given application:

1. There is a need to interoperate across multiple software platforms.
2. One or more of the off-the-shelf tools for dealing with XML can be leveraged when producing or consuming the data.
3. Parsing performance is not critical.
4. The content is not primarily binary content, such as a music or image file.
5. The content does not contain control characters that aren't carriage return, line feed, or tab because they are illegal in XML.