janice williams writes:
> Can anyone from the group share your thoughts about XML (Extensible
> Markup Language), the proposed specification by the W3C (World Wide Web
> Consortium) for future Web page authoring. What's the difference from
> html or Dynamic html?
In a nutshell, XML is streamlined, simplified SGML. SGML was a
good idea, but it was a bear to implement and too big a bite for most
everybody who's tried to implement it. The SGML gurus got together,
saw how far HTML has gotten because it's simple and accessible, and
decided SGML needed to be more accessible to flourish.
SGML is a technology, HTML is an instance; if SGML is ice cream,
HTML is french vanilla. Except that after the last four years, it's
french vanilla with butterscotch syrup, m&ms, sprinkles, etc.
Functionally, SGML and XML are standards about standards for
documents. They define the terms and formats by which people can
define standards for documents - informations. You create a "DTD"
(Document Type Definition) in SGML or XML, which defines a new
standard type of document. So even if people can't agree on which
standard to use, at least they can agree on a protocol to discuss the
matter.
This is, of course, an extremely high-level gloss of the topic.
Dynamic HTML? No idea, although Cascading Style Sheets are
certainly a lot more SGML-ish than HTML 3.0 font stuff.
Theoretically, the next generation of browsers could all be built
using an XML spec of next-generation HTML, thus making it easier for
the browser developers to incorporate support foreven more and newer
data types into their browsers. Or even conceivably make it possible
for a browser (or server, or some other software) to learn about a new
document type on the fly and adapt to it. This last will defintiely
be at the higher end of the scale, however (don't expect to see it
soon).
Steven J. Owens
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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