Last update: 2001-01-29
XML Links
Why XML?
-
it is the ultimate standard for exchange of data of any kind: textual,
database, knowledge representation, etc; this standard is quickly
growing
(for instance in e-commerce) and there is no doubt it will succeed,
accompanying
the growth of Internet;
-
it is extendible, allowing to be very formal or very unformal, as
needed,
-
lots of free tools and standards exist for parsing, viewing,
transforming,
querying,
-
it is possible to apply the same techniques on the client browser or on
the server, thus adding flexibility,
-
it is derived from SGML, a mature and powerful technology in the
document
domain, and related to HTML (now updated to XHTML)
The dark side:
-
it is still an emerging standart; its enormous potential must be widely
used, so that common ways of representing things appear;
-
for example, there is no established standart for relational database
mapping
in XML; each major database vendor has his own way of translating a
table
in XML, and no vendor has even announced it will support import of XML
data;
-
another example: the most common structured data is a list of persons
with
name, adress, mail, comments, etc; even for that there is no XML
standart,
and no XML support from classic software such as mailers;
-
search engines should support XML tags and namespaces;
-
on-line XML content must be widely available on Internet
Local resources:
Extensible browser and editor :
specifications
NEW
XML design principles
XML inside (and out): XML-compliant
applications
Performance Tests with XML processors
XML Links :