What are the relative advantages of XMLEncoder and XStream?

Question

Suppose I want to store many small configuration objects in XML, and I don\'t care too much about the format. The XMLDecoder class built into the JDK would work, and from what I

Answer 1

Addition to @jay answer with example:

Code:

PortfolioAlternateIdentifier identifier = new PortfolioAlternateIdentifier();
identifier.setEffectiveDate(new Date());
identifier.setSchemeCode("AAA");
identifier.setIdentifier("123456");

The output using XStream:

 2014-05-02 20:14:15.961 IST
 AAA
 123456
   

The output using XMLEncoder: