MetaFilter - The "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" Infocom game online! I remember pocket fluff....

Tweebiscuit, a MetaFilter poster, suggested checking out the thriving "interactive fiction" community. Bitblts? We ain't got no bitblts. We don't need no bitblts. I don't have to show you any stinking bitblits!

Sam Ruby ...how are decimals and dates to be handled?

There's the rub. While a text format data isn't optimal, it is, more or less, equally non-optimal on every platform. Just about any binary representation you choose for a particular data type gives some platform an advantage at the cost of another. Would you like big-endian or little-endin with that integer?

Is a single standard binary serialization doomed for this reason? Peter, how widely supported does it need to be a good thing? Do we count computers or platforms?

What about a format that keeps text for all content but replaces element and attribute names with numbers after the first occurrence? Is it worth it?