XML Software Guide: XML Browsers

Last Modified:     March 2, 2009

Opera for Windows 4.0

[XML support added May 2000] "Opera for Windows 4.0 beta 4 includes the following features: E-mail, faster rendering speed, small size, low resource requirements, plug-in support, standards-compliance, 128-bit encryption, TLS, SSL 2 and 3, CSS1, CSS2, XML, HTML 4.0, HTTP 1.1, WML, ECMAScript and JavaScript 1.3." [commercial product for Windows only; free beta]

Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x

See the XML Overview section. Also of interest is the IE5 Overview. IE5 first surfaced as a developer's release in June, 1998. The full release was March 18, 1999. Internet Explorer 5.5 and Internet Tools Beta was released April 2000. [freeware for Windows, Unix, and Mac; IE 5.5 for Windows only at this time]

Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.x

See the section the XML Parser in Java. IE4 support of XML first appeared in September, 1997. [freeware; Windows, Unix, and Mac]

Netscape Mozilla Milestones: Project SeaMonkey

At the time of this writing, Netscape Communicator 4.x does not support XML. However, the 6.x release will, according to every indication. Mozilla.org runs Project Seamonkey in which a new milestone is released every month or two. Milestone 15 was completed April 18, 2000. Netscape is basing many of its changes on Resource Description Framework (RDF) which is a framework layered on top of XML syntax, as shown in this Data Formats diagram by Tim Berners-Lee. NavCenter is a simple tree-column user interface component that uses the HyperTree (HT) API to acquire and display data. (HT is a layer between Netscape Front-Ends and the RDF engine.) Also of interest: NavCenter/Aurora technical overview, XML In Mozilla, a diagram showing the relationship between NavCenter/Aurora, the HyperTree abstraction layer and RDF, and an example of an RDF file. Mozilla uses James Clark's expat parser. [free alpha/beta Milestones available for Windows, Unix, and Mac]

Netscape 6 Preview Release 1

Netscape 6 Preview Release 1 appeared on April 5, 2000, based on the Mozilla Milestone 15 (above). [free preview of commercial product; Windows, Unix, and Mac]

Netscape Communicator 4.7

Netscape Communicator 4.5 was released in July, 1998. Netscape Communicator 4.7 was released late in Sept. 1999(?). Netscape 4.7 has some features such as Smart Browsing that appear to be based on XML (although current documentation does not mention XML). [commercial or freeware; Windows, Unix, and Mac]

JUMBO2

JUMBO2 is the September 1998 release of JUMBO (below). In his announcement to the xml-dev mailing list, Peter wrote: "JUMBO2 is an element-oriented XML-browser, in Java/Swing. Its source is freely available with the normal sort of copyright. The architecture tries to follow the specs and anticipate the possible XML-related APIs. The tension between time available and achievement is evident; there are many bits not fully finished, but I felt there was a sufficient shortage of 'browsers' that you will forgive the buglets....I had expected that JUMBO would have been overtaken by commercial client-side browsers by now, but get the sad impression that client-side XML is not being addressed as excitingly as it could.." JUMBO2 uses SAX, Swing, and supports some type of namespace and stylesheet capabilities. [freeware by Peter Murray-Rust; Windows and Unix]

JUMBO

JUMBO stands for Java Universal Molecular Browser for Objects. The author says, "If you are not a molecular scientist, then the 'M' stands for Markup". JUMBO was the earliest XML browser, initially available when XML was still a working draft. It can be used as a standalone Java application, or in conjunction with Netscape or Internet Explorer. JUMBO was originally created to support the Chemical Markup Language. See also the JUMBO FAQ. [freeware by Peter Murray-Rust; Windows and Unix]

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