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As other people have already remarked, performance comparisons between a binary and textual format should not be based on message size alone. In some applications the actual operation to be performed is very simple and fast. In this case, the time required to extract the input information from the input document dominates. A binary format can reduce the amount of time necessary to extract the input information. A binary format can efficiently produce a data model in which all identifiers are interned. This optimization speeds lookup operations as it is much faster to compare pointers than text strings. For an example of a binary format that supports efficient string interning, without a penalty to generality, see: http://www.waterken.com/dev/Doc/code/ For one application, the E project <http://www.erights.org/>, this optimization was a primary reason in choosing Waterken Doc code over competing formats. I think this technique could be valuable in an XML binary syntax. At the very least, it's worth considering the potential performance gains. Tyler
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