What is XML ?

XML has been given an increasing amount of media attention since the first official specification was approved by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in February 1998. Among other things, it is often mention as a replacement for HTML in Web Publishing. Some of what you have read is undoubtedly true, but there is also the usual amount of media hype surrounding anything Web-related.

XML is basically a markup language that is designed to describe documents containing structured information. HTML is also a markup language, and in many respects similar to XML, but there are some important differences:

1. HTML used a predifined set of tags to mark up information in a given document. XML, on the other hand, has no such pre-defined tag set.
2. XML is designed to be content-oriented, while HTML, as it is being used today, is very much a design-oriented language.

There are,of course, several other areas in which the two languages differ from each other, but this is covered to some extent in the XML Tutorial section of this web site. For a more detailed introduction to the basics of XML, check out Norman Walsh's article A Technical Intoduction to XML.

The following pages will, hopefully, provide some useful information regarding the XML standard, and links to some of the many XML Resource sites out there. The XML Tutorial is still a work in progress, as XML and all its associated standards are still under development. If there are any questions regarding this page, or any suggestions for new links, please send me an e-mail at: vemund.olstad@hi.uib.no.

Next: XML at the World Wide Web Consortium