The answer?

In a post explaining Python for Java developers, there's a hilarious paraphrasing of a comment on RegEx:

XML is not the answer. It is not even the question. To paraphrase Jamie Zawinski on regular expressions, "Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use XML." Now they have two problems."

Heh. Oh, read the entire post as well. Everything he said about Python relative to Java goes for Smalltalk as well.