xelement

Xelement is a conceptual data unit intended for scalable data exchange and storage. It is envisioned as a flexible container that can store a primitive value, a list of child elements, a set of attributes, and optional metadata, while remaining neutral to programming language and serialization format.

Origin and design goals: The term Xelement arose in discussions about interoperable data formats in the 2020s. The design emphasizes self-describing structure, optional schema support, compatibility with JSON-like readability, and extensibility for metadata such as version and type hints.

Structure: A typical Xelement has four core components: a name or tag, attributes (a map of key-value pairs), a value (which may be a primitive or null), and children (an array of nested Xelements). This arrangement allows representing both scalar values and hierarchical documents within a single container.

Serialization and usage: Xelements can be serialized into JSON, XML, YAML, or a compact binary format depending on needs. Proposals advocate preserving metadata during serialization, including type hints and version information, while other approaches favor minimal overhead.

Applications and adoption: In theory, Xelement could underpin APIs, configuration files, event messages, and document stores, enabling a uniform representation across services and languages. Proponents point to its balance of readability and extensibility; critics caution that lack of an official standard could hamper interoperability and tooling.

As a concept, Xelement remains speculative and subject to revision as a formal specification emerges.