XML is very often the least bad format (compared with ASN.1, JSON, X12 EDI, CSV, and other interchange formats), particularly when dealing with statically typed languages. XML is a horrid chimera of SGML but at least it is both human readable, subject to machine validation, and gets the job done.
Nope. I ran into EDI when I was doing an integration for a JIT Hub that had to integrate with Hitachi and Seagate inventory systems. It was pretty awful to work with but the protocol was rock solid.
