So much continual effort wasted when for over 20 years we've had XML.
XML still works well as a configuration format.
Is it verbose? Very much so, but it ticks all the boxes:
- No ambiguity
- Typed
- Quick to parse
- Has Schemas that allow validation
- Widespread tooling support
All we needed was for applications to publish their XML schema files and any XML tool could allow for friendly editing.
> Quick to parse
eh ...
Okay, maybe it's quick. But it's also surprisingly hard to do "right". Just look at libexpat. Sure, many issues could be prevented with another programming language. But there are still regular updates because parsing custom entities is a minefield.
That said, I also like XML for all the other reasons you mentioned. Just don't do it like Maven.