XML is a widely used format for information serialization, transfer, and processing. Unfortunately, because of its document-centric nature, XML is unnecessarily inconvenient to work with in contexts where content consists of multiple independent records, and where streaming and/or fault-tolerant processing are desired. In practice, records are usually grouped together arbitrarily into documents for transfer and processing; this approach often necessitates workarounds to approximate streaming and fault-tolerance, and pointlessly increases the complexity and inefficiency of many workflows involving XML.
