“An Introduction to the Extensible Markup Language (XML)” by Martin Bryan
“Extending Your Markup: An XML Tutorial” by Andre Bergholz
After reading these two articles I began to learn what XML is and how it works. However, I do feel a little shaky on all the specific and intricate details of it. What I do understand is that XML is a language that lets you meaningfully annotate text, unlike HTML. It does not have a single standardized way of coding text and it does not have predefined set of tags. Through Document Type Definition (DTD), the component that defines structure within the XML document or as Bergholz put it a “context-free grammar,” DTD allows users to choose their own tags, elements, and attributes. This freedom to choose and create the structural aspects your own way is a wonderful benefit of XML. Since, XML descriptions are structure orientated rather than HTML’s layout orientation, I believe XML is easier to write and comprehend.
“A Survey of XML Standards: Part 1” by Uche Ogbuji
In the article, Ogbuji discusses the most important XML technologies, or as he puts it, standards. For technologies to become standards they must be notably adopted by an array of vendors or respected organizations. The article pointed out that most standards stemmed from W3C recommendations or from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS). Ogbuji listed some very interesting standards and the best part was that he included links for tutorials and other resources that would be useful in understanding each standard. I really enjoyed learning about the standards for XML Schema language like RELAX NG, the Schematron Assertion Language 1.5, and W3C XML Schema.
XML Schema Tutorial
From what was stated in the Bergholz article, XML Schema is like DTD, for it defines “a grammar” for the document, but it’s more expressive and uses XML syntax. In the tutorial they provided a simple list of what XML Schema is. They stated that the main purpose of an XML Schema is to define the elements, the attributes, which elements are child elements, the order & number of elements, and datatypes & values for each element or attribute. This tutorial was a lot easier to understand than the first two articles in their Schema explanations. Also, the examples were extremely helpful and helped me in grasping the basic concepts.
You seem like you had a much better experience understanding XML than I had. I know it's supposed to be more useful than HTML but, for me, it is harder to comprehend.
ReplyDeleteI agree that XML is easier to understand and work with. But, like I said in my muddiest point, I am wondering if there are certain red flags users should be aware of within the schemas. My biggest concern is if hackers could tamper with ones xml schema for virus purposes , or that kind of thing. Is there a relationship with XML being easier to use and risk factors for viruses, trojan horses, worms, etc?
ReplyDeleteAdam Brody