XML is purely for data description, ie , no paragraph tags,
no font tags, nothing.
an example xml file for an address book
<ADDRESSBOOK>
<ADDRESSBOOKNAME>Seans Addresses</ADDRESSBOOKNAME>
<PERSON>
<NAME>Dave</NAME>
<PHONENO>44444444</PHONENO>
</PERSON>
<PERSON>
<NAME>Mark</NAME>
<PHONENO>55555555</PHONENO>
</PERSON>
</ADDRESSBOOK>
see what i mean, there is no formatting information. The tags
are made up on the spot.
You can then write a XSLT file to format this information.
e.g. for html output
<xsl:stylesheet>
<xsl:output media-type='text/html'/>
<xsl:template match='ADDRESSBOOK'>
<html>
<head>
<title><xsl:value-of select='ADDRESSBOOKNAME'/></title>
</head>
<body bgcolor='white'>
<table border='0' width="100%">
<TR>
<TD>
NAME
</TD>
<TD>
<xsl:value-of select='NAME'/>
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>PHONE NUMBER</TD>
<TD>
<xsl:value-of select='PHONENO'/>
</TD>
</TR>
</xsl:template>
Thats a very simple stylesheet (and it only shows the first address in
the file),
but you get the idea. To change the look/feel/format of the document only
requires that the stylesheet be changed. You dont have to mess with your
data.
Sean
</xsl:stylesheet>
-----Original Message-----
From: Davide Libenzi [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: 04 October 2001 09:55
To: XMail mailing list
Subject: DOC file format ...
Let restrict the choice between HTML and XML.
I like the monolithic ( 1 file ) version with links inside the same file.
Which advantages XML is supposed to have over HTML ?
- Davide
