XML in 10 points
XML, XLink, Namespace, DTD, Schema, CSS, XHTML ... If you are
new to XML, it may be hard to know where to begin. This summary
in 10 points attempts to capture enough of the basic concepts to
enable a beginner to see the forest through the trees. And if you
are giving a presentation on XML, why not start with these 10
points?
1. XML is for structuring data
Structured data includes things like spreadsheets, address books,
configuration parameters, financial transactions, and technical drawings. XML is
a set of rules (you may also think of them as guidelines or conventions) for
designing text formats that let you structure your data. XML is not a programming
language, and you don't have to be a programmer to use it or learn it. XML
makes it easy for a computer to generate data, read data, and ensure that the
data structure is unambiguous. XML avoids common pitfalls in language design:
it is extensible, platform-independent, and it supports internationalization and
localization. XML is fully Unicode-compliant.
2. XML looks a bit like HTML
Like HTML, XML makes use of tags (words bracketed by '<' and
'>') and attributes (of the form name="value"). While HTML specifies what each
tag and attribute means, and often how the text between them will look in a
browser, XML uses the tags only to delimit pieces of data, and leaves the
interpretation of the data completely to the application that reads it. In other
words, if you see "<p>" in an XML file, do not assume it is a paragraph.
Depending on the context, it may be a price, a parameter, a person, a p... (and
who says it has to be a word with a "p"?).
3. XML is text, but isn't meant to be read
Programs that produce spreadsheets, address books, and other
structured data often store that data on disk, using either a binary or text format.
One advantage of a text format is that it allows people, if necessary, to look at the
data without the program that produced it; in a pinch, you can read a text format
with your favorite text editor. Text formats also allow developers to more easily
debug applications. Like HTML, XML files are text files that people shouldn't have
to read, but may when the need arises. Compared to HTML, the rules for XML
files allow fewer variations. A forgotten tag, or an attribute without quotes makes
an XML file unusable, while in HTML such practice is often explicitly allowed. The
official XML specification forbids applications from trying to second-guess the
creator of a broken XML file; if the file is broken, an application has to stop right
there and report an error.
4. XML is verbose by design
Since XML is a text format and it uses tags to delimit the data, XML
files are nearly always larger than comparable binary formats. That was a
conscious decision by the designers of XML. The advantages of a text format are
evident (see point 3), and the disadvantages can usually be compensated at a
different level. Disk space is less expensive than it used to be, and compression
programs like zip and gzip can compress files very well and very fast. In addition,
communication protocols such as modem protocols and HTTP/1.1, the core
protocol of the Web, can compress data on the fly, saving bandwidth as
effectively as a binary format.
5. XML is a family of technologies
XML 1.0 is the specification that defines what "tags" and
"attributes" are. Beyond XML 1.0, "the XML family" is a growing set of modules
that offer useful services to accomplish important and frequently demanded
tasks. XLink describes a standard way to add hyperlinks to an XML file. XPointer
is a syntax in development for pointing to parts of an XML document. An XPointer
is a bit like a URL, but instead of pointing to documents on the Web, it points to
pieces of data inside an XML file. CSS, the style sheet language, is applicable to
XML as it is to HTML. XSL is the advanced language for expressing style sheets.
It is based on XSLT, a transformation language used for rearranging, adding and
deleting tags and attributes. The DOM is a standard set of function calls for
manipulating XML (and HTML) files from a programming language. XML
Schemas 1 and 2 help developers to precisely define the structures of their own
XML-based formats. There are several more modules and tools available or
under development. Keep an eye on W3C's technical reports page.
6. XML is new, but not that new
Development of XML started in 1996 and it has been a W3C
Recommendation since February 1998, which may make you suspect that this is
rather immature technology. In fact, the technology isn't very new. Before XML
there was SGML, developed in the early '80s, an ISO standard since 1986, and
widely used for large documentation projects. The development of HTML started
in 1990. The designers of XML simply took the best parts of SGML, guided by the
experience with HTML, and produced something that is no less powerful than
SGML, and vastly more regular and simple to use. Some evolutions, however,
are hard to distinguish from revolutions... And it must be said that while SGML is
mostly used for technical documentation and much less for other kinds of data,
with XML it is exactly the opposite.
7. XML leads HTML to XHTML
There is an important XML application that is a document format:
W3C's XHTML, the successor to HTML. XHTML has many of the same elements
as HTML. The syntax has been changed slightly to conform to the rules of XML.
A format that is "XML-based" inherits the syntax from XML and restricts it in
certain ways (e.g, XHTML allows "<p>", but not "<r>"); it also adds meaning to
that syntax (XHTML says that "<p>" stands for "paragraph", and not for "price",
"person", or anything else).
8. XML is modular
XML allows you to define a new document format by combining
and reusing other formats. Since two formats developed independently may have
elements or attributes with the same name, care must be taken when combining
those formats (does "<p>" mean "paragraph" from this format or "person" from
that one?). To eliminate name confusion when combining formats, XML provides
a namespace mechanism. XSL and RDF are good examples of XML-based
formats that use namespaces. XML Schema is designed to mirror this support for
modularity at the level of defining XML document structures, by making it easy to
combine two schemas to produce a third which covers a merged document
structure.
9. XML is the basis for RDF and the Semantic Web
W3C's Resource Description Framework (RDF) is an XML text
format that supports resource description and metadata applications, such as
music playlists, photo collections, and bibliographies. For example, RDF might let
you identify people in a Web photo album using information from a personal
contact list; then your mail client could automatically start a message to those
people stating that their photos are on the Web. Just as HTML integrated
documents, images, menu systems, and forms applications to launch the original
Web, RDF provides tools to integrate even more, to make the Web a little bit
more into a Semantic Web. Just like people need to have agreement on the
meanings of the words they employ in their communication, computers need
mechanisms for agreeing on the meanings of terms in order to communicate
effectively. Formal descriptions of terms in a certain area (shopping or
manufacturing, for example) are called ontologies and are a necessary part of
the Semantic Web. RDF, ontologies, and the representation of meaning so that
computers can help people do work are all topics of the Semantic Web Activity.
10. XML is license-free, platform-independent and
well-supported
By choosing XML as the basis for a project, you gain access to a
large and growing community of tools (one of which may already do what you
need!) and engineers experienced in the technology. Opting for XML is a bit like
choosing SQL for databases: you still have to build your own database and your
own programs and procedures that manipulate it, but there are many tools
available and many people who can help you. And since XML is license-free, you
can build your own software around it without paying anybody anything. The
large and growing support means that you are also not tied to a single vendor.
XML isn't always the best solution, but it is always worth considering.
