M
mike myers
XML means Extensible Mark-up Language and it's a mark-up language created for moving as well as exhibiting data or data all over the internet, in a reliable and as planned fashion no matter the systems or browsers being used.Consequently XML is utterly platform independent and is available freely.
XML was really developed to precede SGML and HTML, each of which are mark-up languages although had their very own limitations and also constraints. For example, SGML was basically incredibly complex and expensive, this meantit was very difficult to use for the web, specially because it was not being sustained by any of the commercial browsers.
On the subject of HTML, in spite of being at no cost and widely supported, it had a number of main flaws making it inappropriate for use carrying datavia the internet.
Thus XML was developed out of SGML through a group of IT experts from IBM and Sun, who used the best parts of SGML and cut down the unused, complex and unwieldy parts. The final result would be a simple, extensible and open specification which was only 26 pages long, in comparison with more than 500pages that the SGML specification came with.
Consequently that’s the basic history v XML, let’s right now take a quick look at just what XML is along with what it looks like.
In relation to code syntax, XML is similar to HTML, i.e. you have an opening tag that looks like <xml>, and a closing tag that looks like </xml>
Other than the opening and closing tags, most of an xml file is actually pairs of opening and closing tags with data (collectively, the tags and data are termed XML Elements).
Having presented a concise history on XML and going for a quick look at just what it looks like, lets right now dive right into the pros and cons, opening of course with the positives.
The first and most apparent benefit is that in contrast to HTML, XML tags do not have semantic meaning; this means that you’re not bound in to usinglimited tags, for instance, in HTML you have to use the body tag to position your body elements or the head tag to place the head elements.
With XML you really construct your own tags to suit your needs and you could point whatever you like in between your tags, there isn't any restrictions within the rules e.g. with HTML only body elements can go within the bodytag.
Another gain is the fact that in addition to tags, you may also create and compose your own rules, and these rules, as opposed to HTML, don't constrained to formatting rules, XML enables you to define all forms of tags with all kinds of rules, for instance tags representing business rules or tags representing data description or data relationships.
Despite the many benefits, there is also one major disadvantage that has prevented XML staying more substantially used than it is at present, which isthe absence of suitable processing applications.
With HTML for example, you can actually use virtually any browser to read any HTML document which isn't the situation with XML, since there are at present no XML internet browsers available. For that reason XML documents ought to be changed into HTML before you distribute them or even to make use ofa middleware program to convert it on the fly.
Having said that, parsing tools and algorithms are continuously evolving and also new advancements are making it simpler than previously to work with XML, and so many people are discovering the benefits to moving their data to XML. Finally, commercial XML tools such as http://www.liquid-technologies..com/xml-editor.aspx will be able to tremendously improve your capability work with and edit XML based files and documents.
A far more thorough account of XML can be obtained from this http://www.liquid-technologies.com/xml.aspx or you can certainly check out the W3C website for more information.
XML was really developed to precede SGML and HTML, each of which are mark-up languages although had their very own limitations and also constraints. For example, SGML was basically incredibly complex and expensive, this meantit was very difficult to use for the web, specially because it was not being sustained by any of the commercial browsers.
On the subject of HTML, in spite of being at no cost and widely supported, it had a number of main flaws making it inappropriate for use carrying datavia the internet.
Thus XML was developed out of SGML through a group of IT experts from IBM and Sun, who used the best parts of SGML and cut down the unused, complex and unwieldy parts. The final result would be a simple, extensible and open specification which was only 26 pages long, in comparison with more than 500pages that the SGML specification came with.
Consequently that’s the basic history v XML, let’s right now take a quick look at just what XML is along with what it looks like.
In relation to code syntax, XML is similar to HTML, i.e. you have an opening tag that looks like <xml>, and a closing tag that looks like </xml>
Other than the opening and closing tags, most of an xml file is actually pairs of opening and closing tags with data (collectively, the tags and data are termed XML Elements).
Having presented a concise history on XML and going for a quick look at just what it looks like, lets right now dive right into the pros and cons, opening of course with the positives.
The first and most apparent benefit is that in contrast to HTML, XML tags do not have semantic meaning; this means that you’re not bound in to usinglimited tags, for instance, in HTML you have to use the body tag to position your body elements or the head tag to place the head elements.
With XML you really construct your own tags to suit your needs and you could point whatever you like in between your tags, there isn't any restrictions within the rules e.g. with HTML only body elements can go within the bodytag.
Another gain is the fact that in addition to tags, you may also create and compose your own rules, and these rules, as opposed to HTML, don't constrained to formatting rules, XML enables you to define all forms of tags with all kinds of rules, for instance tags representing business rules or tags representing data description or data relationships.
Despite the many benefits, there is also one major disadvantage that has prevented XML staying more substantially used than it is at present, which isthe absence of suitable processing applications.
With HTML for example, you can actually use virtually any browser to read any HTML document which isn't the situation with XML, since there are at present no XML internet browsers available. For that reason XML documents ought to be changed into HTML before you distribute them or even to make use ofa middleware program to convert it on the fly.
Having said that, parsing tools and algorithms are continuously evolving and also new advancements are making it simpler than previously to work with XML, and so many people are discovering the benefits to moving their data to XML. Finally, commercial XML tools such as http://www.liquid-technologies..com/xml-editor.aspx will be able to tremendously improve your capability work with and edit XML based files and documents.
A far more thorough account of XML can be obtained from this http://www.liquid-technologies.com/xml.aspx or you can certainly check out the W3C website for more information.