Extensible Markup Language (XML)

From reading the last chapter, you already know that XML is the best thing since sliced bread, but to set the scene more accurately, let's go back to the origins of XML and find out what it's really all about.

The design goals for XML (lifted from the text of the XML specification current at this writing—XML 1.0 Second Edition[1]are as follows:

[1] XML 1.0 Second Edition is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-xml-20001006.

  1. XML shall be straightforwardly usable over the Internet.

  2. XML shall support a wide variety of applications.

  3. XML shall be compatible with SGML.

  4. It shall be easy to write programs that process XML documents.

  5. The number of optional features in XML is to be kept to the absolute minimum, ideally ...

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