I have been reading a book on XML and am beginning to see the potential of
XML to abstract the content out of web pages similar to how CSS abstracts
out the design portion. However, I am failing to see how this can improve
my web development projects right now. Accessing XML files directly, formatted
by CSS, you are going to run into older browser incompatibilities. I mostly
use PHP/MySQL to build my dynamic sites and I can't seem to see how XML can
be incorporated to make a significant improvement. I've read that "using
XML in conjunction with a relational database allows you to harness the power
of both" but I just don't see the advantage of using them together. I am
very interested in learning more about XML, but why should I continue if
I can't find an advantage over my proven/reliable relational database? Does
anyone have any advice, examples, or ideas as to how to take advantage of
both?