Extensible Markup Language
The eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is a platform-independent, human-readable way of representing data sent between two computers. XML is in widespread use across the world-wide web, and has built-in parsers in the Java and .NET platforms, as well as most other widely-used web server scripting languages. XML is one of several representations used in Ajax for background messaging between a web page and programs residing on a web server.
XML is a W3C markup language derived from SGML (ISO8879-1986) used in a wide variety of applications for the storage and representation of textual data in a consistent, hierarchical, and well-formed structure.[1]
XML Specification and Origin
The XML specification was developed in 1996 by the SGML Editorial Review Board chaired by John Bosak of Sun Microsystems and the XML Special Interest Group in an attempt to create a subset of the Standard Generalized Markup Language. The group, also known as the XML Working Group laid out a set of guidelines that defined the design goals of the markup language, these requirements are intended to make XML into a straightforward, consistent and portable mark up language:
- XML shall be straightforwardly usable over the Internet.
- XML shall support a wide variety of applications.
- XML shall be compatible with SGML.
- It shall be easy to write programs which process XML documents.
- The number of optional features in XML is to be kept to the absolute minimum, ideally zero.
- XML documents should be human-legible and reasonably clear.
- The XML design should be prepared quickly.
- The design of XML shall be formal and concise.
- XML documents shall be easy to create.
- Terseness in XML markup is of minimal importance.
References
- ↑ Bray, Tim, Jean Paoli, C. M. Sperberg-McQueen, Eve Maler, and François Yergeau, eds. "Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fourth Edition)." World Wide Web Consortium Recommendations. 29 Sept. 2006. 18 May 2007 <http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/REC-xml-20060816/#sec-intro>.
- ↑ Bray T, Paoli J, Sperberg-McQueen CM, Maler E, Yergeau F, eds. "Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fourth Edition)." World Wide Web Consortium Recommendations. 29 Sept. 2006. 18 May 2007 <http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/REC-xml-20060816/#sec-origin-goals>.