I don't think this is an issue worth objecting to.
Complexity exists at many levels. There is complexity of specification and
complexity of implementation. The two are not the same.
I can imagine two reasons why I might want to have ASN.1 in XML. The first is
that I want to use a single set of tools for data serialization and unpacking.
This is particularly attractive if I was going to use an ASN.1 structure inside
an XML packet. The second is if I was looking for a way to move from a legacy
ASN.1 base to an XML base.
As far as complexity of architecture goes neither ASN.1 not XML are to my
taste. ASN.1 looks like a briliant idea that went into committee and got broken
by a few participants whose political skills exceeded their technical skills.
This is a real problem in data formats since they appear to be simple enough
that everyone can have an opinion.
ASN.1 is not so bad unless you have to either use the seriously derranged DER
encoding or deal with some of the later additions to the data model. DER would
not have been so bad if they had chosen to use indefinite length encoding for
lists rather than definite length, thus requiring implementations to chose
between unnecessary recursion and unnecessary memory copies.
I recently wrote an ASN.1 unpacking routine in Javascript in a few hundred
lines. It is not that difficult (packing is another matter - ugh!).
XML syntax is not that bad either. The problems are mostly due to XML schema
which makes the unfortunate mistake that C++ made of not jetisoning the all
cruft from C and starting fresh. The prefix scheme is neither necessary nor
convincing in my view. It breaks the principle that the choice of modular
decomposition in a design should not constrain the end result.
In other words the fact that XML Encryption is built on XML Signature should
not be visible when reading a document that is based on both.
I don't see that the 'complexity' of XML or ASN.1 is unreasonable though. The
problems come from issues such as modularity and version control that have
always been tricky.
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