Struggling with XML? Can't figure out the difference between an entity and a namespace? Fear not - our XML series has all the answers. This introductory article discusses the origins and design goals of XML, the basic rules of XML markup, and how to use elements and attributes in an XML document.
XML, or Extensible Markup Language, is not new. In fact, it's a subset of SGML, the Standardized General Markup Language, modified for use on the Web. SGML was originally developed by Goldfarb, Mosher, and Lorie at IBM in 1969, as a way to structure legal documents; it has evolved over time into an international standard for representing textual data in system-independent format. Since SGML is overly complex for the requirements of the Web, XML has evolved as a modified (read: simpler) version of SGML, adapted specifically for use on the Web.
You might be thinking to yourself: isn't there already a universal language for the Web called HTML? And you'd be right to wonder...
While HTML is great for putting together Web pages, it doesn't offer any way to describe the data contained within those pages. As a formatting language, it doesn't offer any mechanism to define data structures within the document, thereby limiting its usefulness. The fact that it understands a limited set of tags - and even that frequently depends on which browser you're using - reduces its flexibility and makes it difficult to extend its usefulness to other applications.
XML was designed to avoid these disadvantages by creating a markup language which would be simple yet flexible, easy to use yet powerful enough to offer a variety of different applications. Briefly, the original design goals for XML (as stated in the W3C's XML 1.0 Recommendation) were: XML should be simple and easy to use.
XML should support a variety of different applications, by allowing users to develop their own markup.
XML documents should precisely follow certain formally-defined rules and principles.
XML documents should be human-legible and reasonably clear.
This article copyright Melonfire 2001. All rights reserved.
