> Would it take a text file (or string) from say MemoPad and parse it into a
> database? Would it use a DTD inorder to know what to write to the database?
It depends on what you are trying to do. XML is a text file in the same way HTML is a
text file; they both originate from SGML.
Whether you
use a DTD depends on whether you want to verify the XML is "valid" as opposed to being
just "well-formed".
>
>
> What are the advantages of XML? Why would someone want to use it?
XML is sort of like html in that it provides a standard mechanism to get one
application (e.g. Netscape Communicator, or Internet
Explorer) to understand
data generated from another application (e.g. Apache Web Server, IIS, etc.), but much
more. HTML is primarily a presentation
oriented data description. It does
just fine (most of the time) for describing how a set of data should look to a person
using a web browser, but it starts showing
some weaknesses if you were
to try and use HTML to get the information into another application. XML allows you to
describe your own "tags" that give the data
meaning, whereas
HTML is constrained by a mostly pre-defined set of tags. HTML is also rather ad-hoc in
its definition; XML follows a more strict
set of rules that allows
a more rigorous parsing of the data.
>
>
> Where's a good place to start learning about XML?
There lots of different books on XML (and related XSL, etc.) that give a much better
description of where it could (and maybe
should) be used. XML is
not a panacea, I think it may be used now in certain situations more because it's the
current fad, than it being the best
technology in all cases. But, it
is certainly getting better all the time in that more vendors are putting the hooks in
their products that make it easier to use
and learn.
>
>
> --
> Jimi Malcolm
> Web Content Manager
> inburst Internet Media
> inburst.com
> jimi.malcolm@inburst
>
> --
> For information on using the Palm Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see
>http://www.palmos.com/dev/tech/support/forums/
Richard C Dunn
Software Engineer
Arkona, Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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