This project started from my frustration that I could not find any simple, portable XML Parser to use inside my tools (see CONDOR for example). Let's look at the well-known Xerces C++ library: the complete Xerces project is 53 MB! (11 MB compressed in a zipfile). I am currently developping many small tools. I am using XML as standard for all my input /ouput configuration and data files. The source code of my small tools is usually around 600KB.