XML is still a good solution for human-readable data. JSON, for instance, doesn't allow comments because of some dogmatic idea of the author. The author of JSON even goes as far as suggesting that you use a non-JSON parser to strip out comments before parsing. In other words, not using JSON for configuration files that need comments.[1]

XML is also very ubiquitous in library support, having been around for over 15 years.

I think the most negative reaction to XML is the extreme overuse for things like component configuration, where there's no defaults, and every property and class name must be specified. Also, the misguided tag closing (<tag>content</> would have sufficed) adds to the verbosity.

1: https://plus.google.com/118095276221607585885/posts/RK8qyGVa...