XML Basics (part 1) - The Hammer And The Chisel (
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Before beginning any development
effort with XML, you should make sure that you have the right development environment
and tools.
The first - and most important - development tool is the XML editor. Since XML
is a set of rules which allow for the description of textual data, XML documents
can be created with any text editor (just like HTML.) On a UN*X system, both vi
and emacs can handle XML documents, while Notepad remains one of my favourites
under Windows. If you prefer something a little more user-friendly, take a look
at XMLSpy, a powerful and full-featured XML editor, at
http://www.xmlspy.com, or XMetaL at
http://www.xmetal.com/
Both Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 and Netscape Navigator 6.0 come with built-in
XML support, and can read and display an XML document in a hierarchical tree view.
Since most systems come with either or both of these installed, you don't need
to look very far if you need a tool to simply display an XML document. In addition
to these, both Opera and the W3C's Amaya browser now have support for XML documents.
It should be noted at this point that since one of the primary purposes of XML
is to describe data - not present it - browser support is not an essential requirement
for XML usage. Since XML is an open standard, it can be used to package data into
structures that are easily transferable from one system to another. Consequently,
you don't need to constrain yourself to a browser to validate XML data - James
Clark's expat parser, at
http://www.jclark.com/xml/expat.html, and Tim Bray's Lark parser, at
http://www.textuality.com/Lark/, will both do the job for you.
In addition to the general-purpose tools listed above, there are a huge number
of specialized little programs floating around the Web. As this series narrows
its focus, I'll be identifying the tools most suited for specific applications;
however, if you can't wait, drop by
http://www.garshol.priv.no/download/xmltools/, a frequently-updated list of free XML software, and download to your heart's
content.
This article copyright Melonfire 2001. All rights reserved.
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