author here. Thanks for your comment.<p>I clarified that &quot;Sometimes&quot; the causes are political, it used to say &quot;Usually&quot;.<p>But if after a 30 minute read you picked up on a stupid example and you started a discussion on XML vs JSON you are just proving my point. The expectation in the 60s was that machines will figure out protocol, even make protocol, on the fly, by asking about each other. Yet, you want to have another discussion about XML and JSON.