XML is an important new development. For those not familiar, here is a quick take from PC magazine.
Gregg
A new Web page markup language that strips down SGML and picks up where HTML
falls short is gaining momentum among software developers--and it may even
bring Microsoft Corp. and Netscape Communications Corp. to the same
standards table.
A working group of the World Wide Web Consortium last week posted the first
draft specification for building complex hyperlinks in XML (eXtensible
Markup Language). The new linking technology would enable a single XML
hyperlink to point to multiple destinations.
XML is nearly finished after a year of work by W3C developers in Cambridge,
Mass. Like Hypertext Markup Language, XML is born out of Standard
Generalized Markup Language but is stripped of many of SGML's superfluous
features.
SGML was created to render arbitrary data structures; XML retains SGML's
extensible nature but is easier to use because it is built strictly for Web
data and applications, W3C officials said at the group's conference here
last week.
In addition, XML goes beyond HTML by enabling complex, one-to-many
hyperlinking and the creation of larger, more structured documents through
the use of finer-grain "tags" or identifiers. HTML tags are more generic
and easier to use, but less capable of segmenting large documents.
XML enables users to create custom tags--something HTML does not allow--and
separates content from presentation formats, enabling XML Web pages to be
repackaged for use on non-PC devices such as smart phones or personal
digital assistants.
The potential of XML has caught the attention of Barbara Heninger, a
technical publications manager in the IS group at Cadence Design Systems,
Inc. in San Jose, Calif.
"We have 220 manuals and need to provide our users with the ability to
search and find information in them that they need quickly," said Heninger.
"XML enables me to add intelligence to my documents that I cannot get with
HTML."
The language also is gaining momentum among ISVs. Microsoft officials are
promising full support for XML beginning with the third preview release of
Internet Explorer 4.0, due by early summer. Microsoft's interest in XML is
its ability to support Channel Definition Format, a standard proposed by
the Redmond, Wash., company for pushing content to its Active Desktop.
Netscape is looking to support XML but, unlike Microsoft, has not fully
committed to it. Officials at the Mountain View, Calif., company said XML
is a technology that is being closely watched and could be very useful for
solving specific needs.
Adobe Systems Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc., Novell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard
Co. also have endorsed XML, but they have not specific product plans.
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