Compared with GPX files, KML files are ugly - at least when they are saved by Google Earth.
Look at this file: GPX File
and compare it to this: KML File
The KML file is XML, but when it comes to coordinates it just craps them out in one HUGE coordinates tag. Take a close look,
-97.82383400000001,30.275435,267.383911
The 3rd number in the comma-delimited string (I thought that went away with XML?) is the elevation. Not very pretty. Compared with the GPX format:
- <trkpt lat="30.266583" lon="-97.823150">
<time>2007-12-20T21:46:55Z</time>
</trkpt>
Very pretty. Unfortunately the schema of GPX files doesn't lend itself to doing much more than recording tracks and waypoints. It's a file format made for GPS units only. So instead of crafting a more difficult regExpression to remove the elevation data out of the KML file, I just regEx(^ *<ele>.*<\/ele>) to remove the elevation data from the GPX file before editing it in Google Earth and saving it as a KML file.