[bazoom42]

The fundamental problem is XML was designed for textual markup formats but ended up getting used mostly for structured data. Many of the features like element/attribute distinction and mixed content is necessary for markup but unnecessary complexity for structured data.

JSON is perhaps an accident of history rather than deliberately designed, but for structured data interchange it is better because it is simpler.

Just like XML, JSON os getting used outside of its area. Using JSON for configuration files is absurd, since it doesn’t allow comments.