1998 XML News
November 1998: What's New?
W3C News:
XML Namespaces became a
W3C Proposed Recommendation on Nov. 17, 1998.
XML namespaces provide a simple method for qualifying element and
attribute names used in Extensible Markup Language documents by associating
them with namespaces identified by URI references.
Namespaces is likely to become a full Recommendation in Jan. 1999.
Another generally unrelated effort by the W3C is in defining an
Query Language
for XML. A members-only
Query Language Workshop
will be held in Boston in Dec. 1998.
Browser Update:
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 Beta
supports XML with CSS. An XML file can be displayed as a tree with collapsable/expandable nodes,
apparently without Java. IE 5 beta has
"improved support for key standards, including the Document Object
Model (DOM), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and Extensible Markup
Language (XML).... [IE 5 beta] supports direct browsing of XML
source files using XSL or cascading style sheets, just as users can
browse HTML documents." See
XML Support in IE 5 beta,
Microsoft's XML home page,
and also the CNET article,
New Internet Explorer Tested.
XML Working Groups:
Late in October, W3C split its single XML Working Group into 5 specialized
groups (plus a coordination group).
- XML Schema Working Group
- XML Linking Working Group
- XML Information Set Working Group
- XML Fragment Working Group
- XML Syntax Working Group
- XML Coordination Group
This appears to indicate both the vastness of the set of problems to
which XML is being applied, as well as W3C's commitment to develop
complete, interoperable specifications. For a description of each XML
working group, see: the
XML Activity page or the related
XML.com article.
Specifications:
Our XML Specifications page has been updated with these
recent W3C publications related to or built upon XML include:
- WebCGM Profile, a W3C Note, November 6th
- Resource Description Framework (RDF) Schemas,
a W3C Working Draft, updated October 30th.
"With the publication of this draft, the RDF Schema
specification enters 'last call'. The last call period will end on November 30, 1998."
- The Information and Content Exchange (ICE) Protocol,
a W3C Note, October 26th; see also
The ICE Protocol: Automating the Exchange of Syndicated Content
and an ICE article in Wired
- Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)
- W3C Cooperation White Paper, a W3C Note, October 30th
- Extensible Forms Description Language (XFDL) 4.0, a W3C Note, September 2nd
- Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Requirements
EDI:
In addition to ICE and CBL mentioned above under Specifications, those interested in
EDI should visit the XML EDI site. Especially of interest is
this XML/EDI paper which
discusses the interplay among XML, EDI, agents, templates, and repositories.
October 1998: What's New?
An exciting new XML proposal called Schema for Object-oriented XML (SOX)
has been submitted as a W3C Note. SOX builds upon XML-Data and DCD to
provide a major set of enhancements to XML useful for software development
(datatypes, inheritance, embedded documentation, etc.).
Read more about SOX in our
Specifications section.
Also, a new
RDF Working Draft
was published by W3C on October 8, 1998.
Two XML sites have been added to our
Major Sites list:
Techno2000 Project, Inc.: XML's BOX
from Korea and
Project Cool's XML Basics.
Two of the newest XML vocabularies on the block are:
Motorola's Voice Markup Language (VoxML)
and HireScape's Human Resources Markup Language,
both of which have been added to the
Non-W3C section of our Specifications page.
On October 1st, the W3C membership approved the
DOM Level 1 Recommendation.
Read about the Document Object Model
in our Specifications section, which
contains several key DOM links.
We've also updated our popular
Big Picture imagemap
to reflect the new status of the DOM Recommendation.
In mid September 1998, JavaSoft released an early access version of the
XML Library,
a Java API that includes extremely fast parsing (validating or non-validating),
in-memory tree manipulation, XML JavaBeans,
support for DOM, SAX, and XML Namespaces,
and more.
Note: You must establish a free Java Developer Connection account
to access this software. Note also that this Java API is certain to change
and should not be used for mission-critical projects. However, it is
very exciting to see Sun Microsystem's entry into the rapidly growing XML arena.
WDVL Updates:
The WDVL article
XML Software Guide was recently updated
with the addition of a number of
new tools and references. WDVL's
XML-related Acronym Expander was also updated with additional
entries and several link corrections.
Our XML Resources page has also been updated.
URL changes: Robin Cover's excellent
SGML/XML Web Page
is now hosted by OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of
Structured Information Standards). OASIS is a non-profit international
consortium dedicated to the promotion of structured information processing
standards, especially the SGML/XML family of languages.
All links to Cover's site in our XML Resources
page have been updated.
Conferences: Upcoming XML conferences of note are:
<TAG>'98 in Washington, DC
(Nov. 4-6, 1998).
XSL News:
Looking for an XSL tool that matches the August 18th
XSL Working Draft?
Then download James Clark's xt
and read
Paul Prescod's XSL Tutorial
from the September 1998 XML World conference in Canada.
In other XSL news, Håkon Lie and Bert Bos
(two of the CSS spec authors)
have contributed a W3C Note entitled
Using XSL and CSS Together.
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