XML: Structuring Data for the Web: An Introduction
May 3rd 1998
Less than two months after the XML specification became a W3C
recommendation, on April 7, 1998, the
Mathematical Markup Language
Specification (MathML) was approved as the first major XML
vocabulary, a domain-specific
language
based on the XML meta
language. "MathML is an XML application for describing
mathematical notation and capturing both its structure and content,
" according to the MathML Recommendation. The language supports
rich mathematical notation with over 100 domain-specific markup
elements; it is intended to provide a basis for mathematical authoring
tools to be used by scientists.
Also in April, the
Synchronized
Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) 1.0 Specification was
elevated from a Working Draft to a Proposed Recommendation. [UPDATE:
SMIL is now a full W3C Recommendation as of June 15, 1998. -ks] SMIL is
another XML vocabulary, intended for "integrating a set of
independent multimedia objects into a synchronized multimedia
presentation." SMIL (pronounced "smile") supports
hyperlinking to media objects. The specification is the work of
representatives from over a dozen companies, including Lucent/Bell
Labs, DEC, Philips, Apple, Microsoft, Netscape and RealNetworks.
Both Netscape and Microsoft are actively involved in defining
Resource Description
Framework (RDF) Schemas (previously only a W3C Note; now a
Working Draft as of 4/9/98), which will use XML syntax to define site
content rating, sitemaps, push channels, and other site metadata.
The new kid on the block is the
Precision Graphics
Markup Language (PGML) which became a W3C Note on April 10, 1998,
submitted by Adobe, IBM, Netscape and Sun. PGML is a "2D scalable
graphics language designed to meet both the simple vector graphics
needs of casual users and the precision needs of graphics artists"
based on the PostScript and PDF model.
Although not yet submitted to the W3C, the
MusicML: A XML
Experience [sic] is an interesting application of XML in which
Java is used to render the parsed MusicML document representing
musical notation as a non-GIF image. The
Chemical Markup Language
(CML) was the earliest XML vocabulary, although it too has not
been subject to the W3C process.
XML: Structuring Data for the Web: An Introduction
XML: Structuring Data for the Web: An Introduction
XML: Structuring Data for the Web: An Introduction
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