Found this entry of "things Java programmers should keep in mind moving to Python" via my increasingly spam-polluted referrer logs. (Give up, guys, it's blocked by robots.txt, so no legitimate search engine is going to pick it up.)

Anyway, by explaining how the other half lives, this quote sums up my philosophical objection to, but grudging acceptance of the proliferation of XML configuration files in Java.

XML is not the answer. It is not even the question... This is a different situation than in Java, because compared to Java code, XML is agile and flexible. Compared to Python code, XML is a boat anchor, a ball and chain. In Python, XML is something you use for interoperability, not your core functionality, because you simply don't need it for that. In Java, XML can be your savior because it lets you implement domain-specific languages and increase the flexibility of your application "without coding".... But in Python, more often than not, code is easier to write than XML.