[falcolas]

That's because there is no implicit data structure to XML mapping by default. This is a good thing; it makes XML much more flexible.

Of course, that flexibility is what burdened us with SOAP, XBRL, and other monstrosities; but I blame the creators of SOAP, not XML. XML is the "C" of the data markup world (simple but flexible), whereas JSON is more akin to "Java" (heavily restricted in capability, resulting in workarounds to represent complex concepts).

    { "hshhd" : { "uueus":"Eric" } }

How would JSON be any better in this case?