XML: Structuring Data for the Web: An Introduction
May 3rd 1998
Last Modified:
March 2, 2009
Conclusion
It has been said that if HTML makes easy things easy, XML will make
hard things possible. When the XML 1.0 specification was announced in
February 1998, the
press release
was accompanied by a number of glowing
testimonials
from Adobe, IBM, Lotus, Microsoft, Netscape, SoftQuad, and many others.
XML has been heralded as the enabling technology for a Brave New Web,
a whole new generation of Web applications. However, to fully
appreciate the true power of XML, we must free ourselves from the
all-too-familiar browser paradigm. We must think in terms of web-enabled
applications, often not involving a traditional Web browser, that are
capable of accessing data in ways previously not possible. When we
think of representing structured data on the Web, we should think in
terms of using XML because XML is to data as HTML is to display.
What's Next?
This article is merely an introduction to XML. Future articles
on WDVL will cover other aspects of the Extensible Markup Language and
related Web technology, such as:
- Introductory XML Articles
- Robin Cover's XML site (below) contains a page
called Introducing the
Extensible Markup Language, collecting a large number of key
introductory articles thought to be "relatively free of
company-specific marketing rhetoric".
-
W3C Extensible Markup Language (XML) home
- This is the XML home page of the World Wide Web Consortium,
including the
W3C XML Activity area, as well as links to software and all
relevant W3C XML recommendations, working drafts, and notes.
- Robin Cover's
SGML/XML Web Page
- The most extensive XML site, update almost daily; contains
hundreds of links to all things XML-related.
- Peter Flynn's XML FAQ
- Contains numerous details; frequently updated; maintained on
behalf of the World Wide Web Consortium's XML Special Interest Group.
- James K. Tauber's
XML Info site
- Excellent organization of XML information, especially useful for
XML software and XML vocabularies.
- Microsoft's XML site
- Contains a wealth of information about XML, updated approximately
monthly, from introductions including the excellent article,
XML:
A Technical Perspective, to the most recent details.
-
c|net's 20 Questions on XML
- A very good sampling of many XML issues from e-commerce to
authoring tools.
- XML:
Structuring Data for the Web
- The author's own XML Web site, supported by NASA/GSFC's
Information
Systems Center and hosted by
Century Computing, Inc.
- Acronym Expander
- See WDVL's Acronym Expander for a very useful XML-related glossary.
- W3C Technical Reports &
Publications
- If you are interested in tracking the latest developments in XML
and all other emerging Web standards, this is the page to monitor on
a regular basis.
Additional Resources:
XML: Structuring Data for the Web: An Introduction
XML: Structuring Data for the Web: An Introduction
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