Weaknesses of HTML and the Advantages of XML
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Presentation Transcript
XML Extensible Markup Language
Weaknesses of HTML • Displaying very long pages • Only top-level structuring is <head> and <body> • No contextual headings • Can mistakenly use an <h3> instead of an <h2> XML
Weaknesses of HTML • Control over page layout • Ad-hoc fixes • Tables with no borders • One-pixel images XML
Weaknesses of HTML • Hyperlink types • Only a single type of hyperlink • Want multiple types • See also pages • Part of pages XML
Weaknesses of HTML • Delivery of multiple types of information • Conversion to HTML loses inherent structure XML
History • Until 1996, the SGML community hadn't taken an active interest in the web • Mid-1996 • 80 SGML experts joined with W3C to form an SGML working group • Wanted to develop a markup language with power and generality of SGML and easily implementable on the web XML
History • Mid-1996 • This language had to • Support generalized markup on the web • Produce valid SGML-like documents • Provide hyperlinking capabilities compatible with the URL approach • Provide a generic, powerful style-sheet capability XML
History • July 1997 • W3C XML Special Interest Group XML
What It Is • Subset of SGML • Less complex • Easier to use • Can invent your own tagsets • Can make documents self-describing • Can validate your documents • Can break-up large documents into manageable chunks XML