Would you be so kind as to provide me a rough estimate of the man hours that expended in developing the XML Parser. I am interested in an estimate for the entire end product, start to finish, not for some particular version such as XML4J which was probably built on existing software. My guess is that a lot of work was done open source so it may be impossible to say with any accuracy closer than +/- 300%. Still, whatever estimate you would guess would be helpful. We are considering writing our own XML parser, and it woud be helpful to know what your experience has been. We have another question, please. We have noted that saving an XML file as an Excel file gets you an Excel file that seems to have been parsed in some manner. While I'm sure you agree with us that Excel is a excellent product, I wonder if you would be willing to comment on the differences between what XML4J would provide and what Excel provides for some particular XML file. My request is not concerned with me personally, or my personal software. My employer is the Internal Revenue Service and my inquiry concerns software we are developing here in house for IRS use. Thank you in advance for your response, and please comment in lenghty detail if you wish to do so. It would be helpful.
Lyndell Harrell Custodial Accounting OS:CIO:AD:IM:FS:CU 202-283-5147, A6-433
