Xml Performance

XmlPerformance is getting attention due to their dominance of the network bandwidth. See http://www.xmlmania.com/news_article_1674-ZapThink-XML-Inefficiency-Choking-Networks-Market-for-High-Performance-and-Appliance-Approaches-for-.php

I hope there will be resources here later to discuss how XmlPerformance can be improved, and relative merits of alternate approaches.

Standards aiming at improving performance

In January 2005, the W3C ratified SoapProtocol V1.2 based "MessageTransmissionOptimizationMechanism" (MTOM), which uses Xml-binary Optimized Packaging (XOP) and Resource Representation Soap Header Block (RRSHB)to allow for efficient binary data transfer. See http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/REC-soap12-mtom-20050125/

A Gartner Inc set of slides on this can be found at http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/0420-yl-gartnerWS/.
"Recommendations Support Faster Binary Data Transmission" at http://xml.coverpages.org/ni2005-01-25-a.html

Resources

Fast InfoSet and other implementations at http://builder.com.com/5100-6371_14-5534881.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=bldr

RoadMap to high performance XML by "Daniel Cazzulino at http://weblogs.asp.net/cazzu/archive/2004/07/09/HiPerfXML.aspx

Q: What is the performance of XML when compared to other methods?

A1: What do you want to measure? XML vs a text file with no markup? XML vs a text file with a proprietary markup? XML vs binary?

A2: Sans a comparison of XML vs non-XML, some numbers from "Benchmarking XML Parsers" (http://www.xml.com/lpt/a/Benchmark/article.html) by Clark Cooper may be illustrative. He tested six parsers in four different languages. His machine is a PII laptop with a fair but not extraordinary amount of processing power (232.65 BogoMips). CPU seconds to process a 1,264,240 byte file, 33% of which was XML markups (as opposed to content) were:

 C-Expat     0.380
 C-Rxp       0.740
 Java-xp     4.770
 Java-xml4j  6.770
 Perl        8.410
 Python     12.183

Which XML parsing package are you using in Python? There are several, and the speed varies widely.

Network throughput and processing speeds are quite different. Obviously XML is incredibly redundant and a prime candidate for compression, approaching a 90% or more compression rate.

CategoryXml