XML and SQL: Developing Web Applications

Why HTML Is Not the Answer

I hear you saying to yourself, “Ah, Dan, but what about HTML? I can use HTML for managing information, and I get Web publishing for free (because HTML is the language of the Web). Isn't HTML also derived from SGML, and isn't it also a great, standardized way of storing documents?” Well, yes on one, no on two. HTML is wonderful, but for all its beauty, HTML is really good only at describing layout—it's a display-oriented markup. Using HTML, you can make a word bold or italic, but as to the reason that word might be bold or italic, HTML remains mute. With XML, because you define the markup you want to use in your documents, you can mark a certain word as a person's name or the title of a book. When the document is represented, ...