First of all, it only refers to Serialized objects.

XMLEncoder:

The XMLEncoder class is a complementary alternative to the
ObjectOutputStream and can used to generate a textual representation of
a JavaBean in the same way that the ObjectOutputStream can be used to
create binary representation of Serializable objects. For example, the
following fragment can be used to create a textual representation the
supplied JavaBean and all its properties:
      XMLEncoder e = new XMLEncoder(
                         new BufferedOutputStream(
                             new FileOutputStream("Test.xml")));
      e.writeObject(new JButton("Hello, world"));
      e.close();

Despite the similarity of their APIs, the XMLEncoder class is
exclusively designed for the purpose of archiving graphs of JavaBeans as
textual representations of their public properties. Like Java source
files, documents written this way have a natural immunity to changes in
the implementations of the classes involved. The ObjectOutputStream
continues to be recommended for interprocess communication and general
purpose serialization.
-<

So, for serializing JavaBeans, you would use XMLEncoder instead of
AbstractTableModel.

AFAIK it isn't and never will be incompatible, at least not for reasons
to do with Serialization.

AFAIK that just means that if you serialize your AbstractTableModel to
XML with the current release of Swing and some time later try to
deserialize that XML using a later release of Swing, the "old" XML
format may be unusable.

For me this is a good reason not to rely on Serialization for long term
persistence. I'd only use it as intended - e.g. passing objects across a
network (as in RMI). In that case, I guess you should take care that
client and server apps were built with the same version of the JDK.
Perhaps this is a reason why SOAP is a better idea than RMI.

I can't imagine why you'd serialize an AbstractTableModel. That isn't
the sort of object I'd expect to see involved in remote method calls.
And certainly not in long term persistence of data - as in storing
Person beans in a database.

Caveat Emptor: I've used Swing and JDBC but I've never serialized an
object. There is much I don't know.