Cover Pages: SGML/XML News. What Was New, Relatively New, or New in the 'SGML/XML Web Page' in 1998?

December 24, 1998. The Ontogenics Metadata Mediator research project "has three primary goals: 1) creating a Web-based 'mediator' utility for translating models to and from XMI; 2) prototyping a vendor independent XML representation for business rules; 3) UML extensions for integrating rules into the methodology and model repository." In particular, Ontogenics Corporation is "building on the proposed XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) standard that includes a full XML representation for UML, designing a standard, XML-based interchange language for business rules. This Rule Markup Language (RML) is designed as an extension to the XMI proposed standard, including appropriate integration with the Unified Modeling Language (UML) representation. A UML markup language is a part of the XMI proposal and is also an extension of the core metadata exchange definition. . . Our Repository Translation Service is a software tool that leverages the XMI language to translate common repository models between tools, or between repositories. The Repository Translator also includes Web-based model editors and model viewers that are built directly on the XMI representation, so these utilities can edit or view contents from many sources."
December 24, 1998. Jon Bosak (Sun Microsystems) has posted an announcement concerning the deadline schedule for the XTech '99 Conference presentations. The "soft" deadline of Monday, December 14, 1998 "has been changed to a 'hard' deadline of Friday, January 8, 1999. The change reflects a growth in the size and importance of the conference that requires increased lead time in the planning and preparation of printed schedules. Where formerly we were asking for early proposals but allowing late submissions to within a few weeks of the conference, we are now setting one deadline for all submissions well in advance of the conference." The XTech '99 Conference (March 7 -11, 1999, San Jose Convention Center) is presented by the Graphic Communications Association, co-hosted by OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards), and sponsored by Sun Microsystems. For additional information, see the main conference entry for XTech '99.
December 24, 1998. A communique from Michail Medvinsky provides a URL for an 'xdCatalog system' and describes the first public version of the XML-Data Cataloging System. "XML-Data xdCatalog parser is a validating XML-Data cataloging system. The main objectives of this product are to enable the XML software developer to construct a self-describing information mapping system, as well as provide the regular features of XML, such as DTD validation and parsing." Its principal features: "1) XML-Data DTDs, optimization, validation and reporting - with support for XML inheritance, XML Foreign key and Primary Key functionalities, Data path search, TypeEquivalence and aliasing, Namespaces, DataType checking, Automatic DTD resolution; 2) Validation of data streams as well as Creation of the walkable XML Tree; 3) Parser Interfaces." An XDREP tool is provided to help the user explore some of the functions of the xdCatalog. Additional information is provided in the online documentation. The author has made the source code available for download and provides installation instructions; he invites user comments.
December 22, 1998. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has released a revised version of its DTD for patent documents - ST32 US Patent Grant. The revision of 1998-December-4 under the editorship of Bruce B. Cox revises the DTD "to comply with latest revisions to Red Book and XML 1.0 (except empty tags and UNICODE)." The FPI: "-//USPTO//DTD ST.32 US Patent Grant v1.0 1998-12-08//EN". "This DTD was developed by the USPTO in August of 1997 to support the publishing of patent documents. It was derived from version 3.4 of the WIPO Standard ST.32 DTD. The original DTD was modified to handle only those elements used by the USPTO. It incorporates the CALS table and equation models, and handles graphics as external entities." The DTD itself is supplied in Appendix A of the PTO's "Red Book" SGML Data Format Definition. The larger collection of technical specifications documentation provides a "detailed description of the organization and content of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Patent Data/SGML. The Patent Data/SGML will consist of patent data records appearing in the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), as defined by this documentation, the ST32US Document Type Definition (DTD) file, reference Appendix A, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standard ST. 32, reference Appendix B [Appendix B: World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Standard S32 - Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML)]. The SGML tag identifiers, and the appropriate data content, described in this document are used for the creation and subsequent use of the compound data of U.S. Patent documents." Document samples and related reference materials are provided in the other appendices. For other information, see the database entry "U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO)."
December 22, 1998. Norman Walsh has posted an announcement to the Davenport Group indicating that major additions are planned for DocBook version 3.1 "Since the OASIS TC meeting in Chicago, the DocBook Technical Committee has been working hard to finalize DocBook 3.1. We expect it to be released in January. Along with a number of smaller changes, DocBook 3.1 will introduce two new, substantial constructs: QAndASet and MediaObject. In two following messages, I'll summarize the content models and semantics of QAndASet and MediaObject. If you have comments, particularly if you think these elements fail to address your needs in these areas, please post them to the list." Thus, in DocBook 5, Graphic and InlineGraphic will probably be removed. The new MediaObject will address several needs: "1) include multimedia content other than graphics; 2) providing alternative presentations for multimedia objects; 3) add captions to multiple graphics within a figure." As planned, "QAndASet provides a framework for sets of 'Questions and Answers'. A QAndASet can be broken into QAndADivs (with titles). Each set (or division) contains one or more question/answer pairs." Note that Norman Walsh continues to play a leading role in the development and maintenance of DocBook, including the creation of an XML version of the DocBook 3.0 DTD, and the DSSSL Modular DocBook Stylesheets. Norm is also authoring a reference document to be published by O'Reilly & AssociatesDocBook: The Definitive Guide.
December 22, 1998. IBM alphaWorks has released several new technologies on its Web site, including LotusXSL - An experimental implementation of the Construction Rules section of the XSL World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Working Draft. This experimental application is being developed jointly by IBM and Lotus. The LotusXSL processor is written in Java and conforms to the construction rules features of the draft XSL specification released by the W3C [today - WD-xsl-19981216]. LotusXSL is packaged as a JavaBean for use in client or server applications, as an applet for use in Java-enabled web browsers, and as a command-line Java program. Summary: "XSL provides a mechanism for formatting and transforming XML, either at the browser or on the server. It allows the developer to take the abstract data semantics of an XML instance and transform it into a presentation language such as HTML. LotusXSL implements an XSL processor in Java, and can interface to APIs that conform to the October 1 Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 Specification. The processor can be used from the command line or from an wrapper applet, or it can be used as a submodule of other programs, and accessed via the API. The LotusXSL processor is designed to help our customers and others in the web community gain early experience with the very latest XSL technology. This announcement also highlights both Lotus' and IBM's active role in advancing openstandards such as W3C's XML and XSL."
December 22, 1998. Jani Jaakkola has announced the availability of Sgrep version 191a. "Sgrep-1.91a has been made available in source and binary forms. Binaries are available for Win32, HP-UX, Linux, OSF1 and Solaris platforms. Sgrep is a tool to search and index text, SGML, XML and HTML files using structured patterns." Among the new features in Sgrep version 1.91a: "1) nearness operators for both ordered and unordered nearness; 2) support for 16-bit wide query terms - this really means that Sgrep now supports Unicode; 3) support for UTF-16 and UTF-8 encodings; 4) the 'parenting' operator is now an order of magnitude faster in the common case; 5) Sgrep now emits and parses #line-directives, which allows for more accurate error reporting; 6) an option to query terms from index files." For more information on sgrep, see the announcement and the online description.
December 22, 1998. DataChannel Inc. recently announced the "Immediate Availability of eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) Implementations, Delivering the Most Advanced XML Framework in a Java-based Parser." The Beta 2 version of the Java XML parser (XJ2) has been co-developed with Microsoft Corporation. The XJ2 Beta 2 enhanced features include: "1) XSL support - apply style sheets to XML data and display or transform the data in a dynamic and flexible way that can be easily customized; 2) XSL pattern matching of XML Data; 3) full support for the W3C XML DOM Recommendation; 4) a validating XML engine - fully supports W3C XML 1.0 and XML Namespaces; native XML support in Java means that developers can count on the full XML processing capabilities being present to read and manipulate the data they move between their applications and components across different platforms; 5) support for XML Schemas; 6) server-side XML and XSL." The parser is now available for download. In this connection, note that the Microsoft Repository SDK Version 2.1 with new XML support is also available. SDK version 2.1 has updated application development samples and a new version of the Open Information Model.
December 22, 1998. A revised W3C Working Draft on Ruby for review by W3C members and other interested parties has been published. References: WD-ruby-19981221, World Wide Web Consortium Working Draft, 21-December-1998. Ruby text is a "run of text that appears in the immediate vicinity of another run of text ('ruby base') and serves as an annotation or a pronunciation guide associated with the base. Ruby, as used in Japanese, is described in JIS-X-4051." The new Ruby Working Draft is published by the W3C Internationalization Working Group. The WD specification extends HTML/SGML to support ruby text typically used in East Asian documents. Familiarity with both HTML 4.0 and XML-ized HTML (HTML-XML) [on the part of the reader] is assumed." Ruby elements are defined in two DTD versions: one declaration per element for SGML [= HTML4] and one for XML-ized HTML [= HTML-XML].
December 22, 1998. A new online Status Update from Mozilla.Org [December 19, 1998] provides new information on the XPToolkit module, the Editor (composer), RDF and HT (HyperTree), and NGLayout. See 'XML in Mozilla' for other references to Mozilla and Gecko.
December 21, 1998. James Clark has announced the availability of a new version of XT - a Java implementation of the tree construction part of XSL. This release of XT (Version 19981220) supports the new W3C Working Draft for the Extensible Stylesheet Language Version 1.0 (WD-xsl-19981216). The new version of Clark's XT is not backwardly compatible with the previous XSL WD specification; older stylesheets will need to be updated. XT is characterized as an "alpha test version, which has had very little testing. . . intended as a tool for learning about XSL [and] not for getting real work done."
December 18, 1998. Steve Muench and Mark Scardina (Oracle) have posted announcements about the 'PLSXML' XML utilities and demos recently released by Oracle, including the Oracle XML Parser for Java Beta. "PLSXML is a set of PL/SQL-based XML utilities and demonstrations. The PLSXML 'Suite' consists of: 1) DBXML - For generating rich, nested XML documents from SQL queries; 2) DBDOM - For creating, parsing, traversing, and searching XML Documents using the Document Object Model API; 3) DBXSL - For generating a database-driven XSL stylesheet for a tree-rendering of data." The set of utilities in PLSXML have been created "to help prototype and illustrate ideas for integrating XML with the Oracle database in future releases. However, these current prototypes can help Oracle customers understand what is possible using current Oracle technology and might prove useful as they prototype applications using Oracle and XML together as part of their application architecture. The PLSXML utilities and demos will work with: any production version of the Oracle7 or Oracle8 database, any production version of the Oracle Web/Application Server 2.1 or higher, or the Internet Explorer 5.0 Beta 2 Browser." Features of the Oracle XML Parser for Java Beta [Early Adopter Pre-Release]: 1) supports validation and non-validation modes; 2) built-in Error Recovery until fatal error; 3) supports W3C XML 1.0 Recommendation; 4) intergrated Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1.0 API; 5) integrated SAX 1.0 API; 6) supports W3C Proposed Recomendation for XML Namespaces; 7) Supports documents in the following encodings: UTF-8, UTF-16, ISO-10646-UCS-2, ISO-10646-UCS-4, US-ASCII, EBCDIC-CP-US, ISO-8859-1, Shift_SJIS." See the full text of the announcements for other details.
December 18, 1998. Vincent Quint of W3C/INRIA has announced the availability of a new Working Draft of the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) Version 1.0 specification. References: WD-xsl-19981216, World Wide Web Consortium Working Draft 16-December-1998. The editors are James Clark (responsible for the 'Tree Construction' portion) and Stephen Deach of Adobe (responsible for the 'Formatting Objects' portion). Relative to the previous Working Draft of 18-August-1998, this WD "adds additional functionality to what was described in the previous draft, however the basic design of the previous draft remains unchanged." Abstract: "XSL is a language for expressing stylesheets. It consists of two parts: 1) a language for transforming XML documents, and 2) an XML vocabulary for specifying formatting semantics. An XSL stylesheet specifies the presentation of a class of XML documents by describing how an instance of the class is transformed into an XML document that uses the formatting vocabulary." The new WD specification is available in HTML, XML, and PDF formats. Discussion on this second WD version is invited and comments can be sent to the editors at xsl-editors@w3.org; public discussion of XSL takes place on the XSL-List mailing list. For more information on the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL), see the dedicated document.
December 17, 1998. Sun Microsystem's "Java Project X: Java Services for XML Technology" is the new name for the Java services formerly released as the "Sun XML Library." On December 01, 1998, this development project was renamed Java Project X, and moved to "Early Access 2" with API updates, some speedup, and minor bug fixes. Java Project X is the codename for a set of core XML-enabling services written completely in the Java programming language. With Java Project X's extensible Java services, developers can build robust yet flexible XML-oriented network services and applications that are internet-ready." This release requires JDK 1.1.6 or later or JDK 1.2, and approximately 3.5M bytes of disk space. Sun's Java services in this new release provide full XML processing capabilities, including a fast XML parser with optional validation, an in-memory object model tree that supports the W3C DOM Level 1 recommendation, and basic support for JavaBeans integration with XML. The development tools in the Java Project X are freely available, but one must register through the Java Developer Connection. The second early access release is addressed to Java developers who want access to Sun's fast and fully conformant core XML software for their development. The library supports an optional in-memory object model tree for manipulating and writing XML structured data. The library is 'core' in the sense that significant XML based applications can be written using only this functionality, and that it is intended that other XML software be layered on top of it. That is, it is a building block for developers." According to the Release Notes, the Java Project X library conforms fully with open standards: "1) the parsers conform to the W3C's XML 1.0 recommendation; 2) the parse tree supports the XML (core) part of W3C's DOM Level 1 recommendation; 3) in combination, the two also support the current W3C XML Namespaces proposed recommendation; 4) the parser supports the SAX 1.0 API; 5) the entity resolution used within the parser normally conforms to the IETF's RFC 2376 registration for XML-related MIME content types, [but] this can be overridden as required." Background to some of this development by Sun is provided by Dave Brownell in "XML and Java Technology - An Interview with Dave Brownell. [Part One]," from java.sun.com, 'The Source for Java Technology'. See "Java Project X" for other information.
December 17, 1998. Steve DeRose (Brown University, and editor of the W3C's XPointer and XLink Specifications) has posted a provisional listing of 'XPointer/XLink Implementations, and requests that reviewers contact him about additions and corrections to the list. The XML Linking Working Group has been set up (Bill Smith, Chair), and is actively working to finalize the XML Pointer Language (XPointer) Working Draft in preparation for its becoming a W3C Proposed Recommendation. Steve has also prepared an introductory document "What is XML Linking?" which explains the design work of the XML Linking Working Group. For other information, see the posting and the dedicated document XML Linking Language (XLink and XPointer).
December 17, 1998. Dr. James David Mason, as Acting Chairman of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34, has published a "Business Plan for JTC1/SC34" which reports on the subcommittee's scope, working groups, current projects, liaison relationships, and so forth. The report reflects the fact that "ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34 Information Technology -- Document Description and Processing Languages" is a relatively new subcommittee under its current charter. The document should be of interest to anyone who wishes to understand the work of SC34, which is responsible for many important standards in the text-processing domain (e.g., SGML (ISO 8879), DSSSL (ISO/IEC 10179), HyTime (ISO/IEC 10744), Topic Navigation Maps (ISO/IEC 13250), ISMID, Registration Procedures for SGML Public Identifiers (ISO/IEC 9070), SPDL (ISO/IEC 10180), Fonts (ISO/IEC 9541), Font Registration (ISO/IEC 10036), and others.
December 17, 1998. A recent press release "VRML Consortium Expands Charter to Become Web3D Consortium" describes the ratification of a new charter by the membership of the VRML Consortium. The new Web3D Consortium "has also initiated an internal, fast-paced process to define an interoperable set of lightweight and extensible component 3D standards to flexibly address the needs of a wide range of Internet and broadcast applications. This process has the backing and support of key industry members and is expected to promote interoperability with standards such as DHTML, XML, DOM and MPEG-4 to encourage the ubiquitous deployment of reliable 3D content." Len Bullard (Intergraph Public Safety) has also reported on XML-DEV that efforts are underway within the W3D Consortium Enterprise Working Group to create XML DTDs for the Virtual Reality Markup Language (VRML) [current VRML97 nodes]. For additional information, see the dedicated database entry "XML and VRML."
December 16, 1998. Bob DuCharme posted an announcement for the online availability of Chapter 2 of his book, SGML CD: "Editing SGML Documents with the Emacs Text Editor." This Adobe Acrobat version of Chapter 2 (99 pages) "assumes no initial knowledge of Emacs and provides a basic introduction to creating and navigating simple text files before it covers PSGML - Lennart Staflin's add-in that turns Emacs into a menu-driven, validating, SGML/XML editor." From Staflin's page: "PSGML has several functions for editing SGML documents. Indentation according to element nesting depth and identification of structural errors (but it is not a validating SGML parser). Menus and commands for inserting tags with only the contextually valid tags. Attribute values can be edited in a separate window with information about types and defaults. Structure based editing includes movement and killing; and also several commands for folding editing." Bob says: "The SGML CD book is a tutorial and user's guide to free SGML/XML software, and you can link to all the software from the web page whether you want to buy the book or not. I have my own time- and keystroke-saving PSGML tricks (mostly in the form of .emacs lines) and I'm curious about those of other PSGML users, so I'll be posting a Web page of my own and soliciting those of others to add in a few weeks. Feel free to send them to me anytime; I'll credit all contributors." For other information on the PSGML 'GNU Emacs Major Mode' for editing SGML coded documents, see the main database entry.
December 16, 1998. A new XML White Paper from SoftQuad Software, Inc. provides an introduction to the Extensible Markup Language and offers some illustrated examples explaining "What XML is Good For." Several other documents on the SoftQuad Web site now reveal more clearly what the XMetaL 'user-friendly XML editor' is to look like. Previously announced for release in March 1999, the XMetaL editor is to "provide authors with a familiar word processing-like environment and a rich array of powerful authoring aids including multiple document views and context sensitive property inspectors. The user interface features configurable window management, customizable toolbars, and tear off menus. The Resource Manager provides drag and drop management of boilerplate text, document fragments, logos, macros and more, both locally and across corporate networks. XMetaL conforms to numerous standards including SGML, XML, CALS tables, DOM, CSS, and HTML. Its extensive customization capabilities maximize author productivity by enabling the delivery of content specific interfaces. For delivering customization and integration services XMetaL supports industry standard interfaces including COM, DOM, JavaScript and VBScript." A Beta Program for XMetaL, to commence in mid-January, has been offered to potential reviewers. For more on SoftQuad Software's XML/SGML/HTML products, see the entry in "XML Industry Support."
December 15, 1998. Tony Graham of Mulberry Technologies, Inc. has made the full text of his MT '98 presentation available online. See "Unicode: What Is It and How Do I Use it?" The document abstract: "The rationale for Unicode and its design goals and detailed design principles are presented. The correspondence between Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646 is discussed, the scripts included or planned for inclusion in the two character set standards are listed. Some products that support Unicode and some applications that require Unicode are listed, then examples of how to specify Unicode characters in a variety of applications are given. The use of Unicode in SGML and XML applications is discussed, and the paper concludes with descriptions of the character encodings used with Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646, plus sources of further information are listed." Several other papers from the Markup Technologies '98 Conference are also online; see references in the annotated agenda.
December 14, 1998. A communique from Christophe Reubrez describes a new French-speaking Web site devoted to XML: "XML Francophone." The site developers will use the forum to popularize and disseminate XML-related information for the French-speaking community. They plan to publish a directory of the XML partners within the French-speaking and will host contributions from French-speaking individuals wishing to share their knowledge and opinions about XML and its economical and cultural import community. "The first contribution hosted by this site is a bilingual article by Emmmanuel Lazinier "Documents Coming Alive -- How XML Will Transform the Way we Design and Exploit Documents", in which the author sets out to demonstrate that XML might well be "the hallmark of an upcoming revolution in man's communication and, even further, cognition." A version of this paper is also available in French.
December 14, 1998. Rick Jelliffe has announced a new project at Academica Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, designed to help the developers of Chinese XML software. The "Chinese XML Now!" Web site hosts a Chinese XML FAQ document, a collection of small XML files for testing XML well-formedness, a "Chinese Numberplate" Logo intended to help Chinese users select appropriate XML software, and other resources. Documents are available in Chinese using various encodings: UTF-8, Big5, and GB 2312. The Chinese XML Now! Web site also contains references to a variety of computing resources generally useful in the realm of "multilingual" XML. Jelliffe writes: "Anyone who is doing Chinese XML is welcome to participate. At this early stage in the game, the intent of the site is primarily to provide useful material for Western developers: we want to make it easy for the first generation of XML tools to support Chinese. But as more XML activity grows on this side of the Pacific, we anticipate the site will become primarily targetted to Chinese-language people. Part of this may also involve creating or porting useful utilities. Academia Sinica is the leading Chinese research institution. It has many projects which will require Chinese XML in the near future. "Chinese XML Now!" is a project to help develop XML infrastructure we can use and share." For other references, see "Chinese XML Now!" Note also that Rick Jelliffe's book on XML (The XML and SGML Cookbook. Recipes for Structured Information) contains several chapters especially informative for developers interested in the multilingual aspects of XML document encoding and processing.
December 10, 1998. Jean-Philippe Théberge reported that a French mailing list for XML has been created. To subscribe to the discussion forum, send "subscribe" in the body of an email message to xml-request@trisome.com. Postings should then be sent to xml@trisome.com. See the document "SGML/XML Discussion Groups and Mailing Lists" for descriptions of other XML discussion groups, including lists conducted in Spanish, Italian, and German.
December 10, 1998. Jani Jaakkola has announced the availabilty of "sgrep-1.90a - An SGML and XML Search and Indexing Tool." Sgrep is a tool to search and index text, SGML, XML and HTML files using structured patterns. New features in Sgrep version 1.90a include: 1) query operators that support direct containment, so that one may query children and parents of given elements; 2) the sources are available under GPL-license for those interested in compiling sgrep; 3) Sgrep now uses GNU autoconf, so compiling sgrep under Unix-systems should be easy; 4) bug fixes. This version of Sgrep contains the sources, Win32 binaries, and binaries for HP-UX, Linux, OSF1 and Solaris. The Win32 binary also includes the m4 macro processor. For more information on Sgrep, see README file, the overview, or the main database entry.
December 10, 1998. IBM Japan's alphaWorks project at the Tokyo Research Laboratory has released a new version of `XML for Java', now renamed to `XML Parser for Java.' Changes in XML4J version 1.1.9 include: conformance to the XML Namespaces Proposed Recommendation, improved memory usage in SAX mode, addition of -nowarn, -stdout options to XJParse, handling of wildcards by XJParse, and bug fixes. The IBM XML Parser for Java "is a validating XML parser written in 100% pure Java. The package (com.ibm.xml.parser) contains classes and methods for parsing, generating, manipulating, and validating XML documents." IBM offers a commercial license for XML Parser for Java at no cost.
December 08, 1998. The W3C WebCGM Profile, as part of the W3C Graphics Activity, has advanced to a W3C Proposed Recommendation, PR-WebCGM-19981207. Its principal authors are David Cruikshank, John Gebhardt, Lofton Henderson, Roy Platon, and Dieter Weidenbrueck. "WebCGM is a profile of the ISO Computer Graphics Metafile standard (ISO/IEC 8632:1992), tailored to the requirements for scalable 2D vector graphics in electronic documents on the World Wide Web. [It is] an 'intelligent graphics' profile, which means that in addition to graphical content based on CGM Versions 1-3, the profile includes non-graphical content based on CGM Version 4, Application Structures. The non-graphical content allows the definition of hierarchies of application objects, as well as the association of metadata, such as link specifications and layer definitions, with the objects. CGM (Computer Graphics Metafile) has been an ISO standard for vector and composite vector/raster picture definition since 1987. It has been a registered MIME type since 1995. CGM has a significant following in technical illustration, electronic documentation, geophysical data visualization, amongst other application areas. WebCGM has been a joint effort of the CGM Open Consortium, in collaboration with W3C staff under the W3C-LA project. It represents an important interoperability agreement amongst major users and implementors of CGM, and thereby unifies current diverse approaches to CGM utilization in Web document applications. WebCGM's clear and unambiguous conformance requirements will enhance interoperability of implementations, and it should be possible to leverage existing CGM validation tools, test suites, and the product certification testing services for application to WebCGM. While WebCGM is a binary file format and is not 'stylable', nevertheless WebCGM follows published W3C requirements for a scalable graphics format where such are applicable. The design criteria for the graphical content of WebCGM aimed at a balance between graphical expressive power on the one hand, and simplicity and implementability on the other. A small but powerful set of metadata elements is standardized in WebCGM, to support the functionalities of: hyperlinking and document navigation; picture structuring and layering; and, search and query on WebCGM picture content."
December 08, 1998. A featured "Site of the Week" at Ontology.Org is Syncra Software, which has recently issued a white paper titled "Recommendations for using Extensible Markup Language (XML) in Collaborative Planning Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR) Communications." Collaborative Planning Forecasting and Replenishment is "a collection of new business practices leveraging the Internet and existing technologies to radically reduce inventories and expenses while improving customer service. . . the advances central to this program involve collaboration between retailers, distributors, and suppliers on forecasting data and assumptions driving to a single shared forecast of consumer demand." Syncra Software's product Syncra Ct, using JavaBeans and Enterprise JavaBeans, "helps synchronize the planning and forecasting processes among multiple parties. Syncra Ct is the first product to implement the current Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment guidelines from the Voluntary Interindustry Commerce Standards Association. For trading partner communications, it employs CPFR message types such as X12 EDI 830 and 852, SIL, and XML formats. At the same time, it integrates directly with the major ERP, SCM and APS applications. Integration with legacy enterprise systems is also straightforward and reliable. Syncra Ct connects trading partners' planning and forecasting systems, allowing each trading partner to view product forecasts and replenishment plans over the Internet, private networks, or dial-up connections." From the white paper abstract: "The VICS Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment (CPFR) Voluntary Guidelines prescribe two data format standards for exchanging messages among trading partners: X12 EDI and Standard Interchange Language (SIL). In the months since the CPFR Guidelines were developed, the World Wide Web Coalition (W3C) has approved another standard for structured data interchange: Extensible Markup Language (XML). XML, because of its tight integration with other Internet specifications, and wide support from soft-ware vendors, is a promising alternative data format for CPFR communications. This document addresses strategic concerns and current progress in the mapping of CPFR data interchange requirements to an XML Document Type Definition (DTD), for use with XML parsers and other Internet tools."
December 08, 1998. Ellen Maremont Silver (O'Reilly) posted an announcement on the growing importance of Perl for processing XML documents: "New Perl Module Enables Application Developers to Use XML. Expands Capabilities for Business-to-Business Communication of Data and Language." The posting describes the new Perl module XML::Parser which "allows Perl programmers building applications to use XML, and provides an efficient, easy way to parse (break down and process) XML document parts. For Windows, XML::Parser is available as part of the ActivePerl package at http://www.ActiveState.com. The XML::Parser package for Windows will be upgradeable when the next version comes out using Perl Package Manager, also included in ActivePerl. For UNIX, XML::Parser is available from the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) at http://www.perl.com/." For other information on Perl/XML, see the database section "XML and Perl" and the "Perl XML FAQ" by Jonathan Eisenzopf.
December 08, 1998. Andrew M. Kuchling (CNRI) announced the release of Version 0.5 of the Python/XML distribution. The code for the Python/XML distribution is being developed "bazaar-style" by contributors from the Python XML Special Interest Group. "The Python/XML distribution contains the basic tools required for processing XML data using the Python programming language, assembled into one easy-to-install package. The distribution includes parsers and standard interfaces such as SAX and DOM, along with various other useful modules. Version 0.5 can be considered a beta release." Changes in the version 0.5 of the Python/XML release include enhanced DOM implementation, addition of a Unicode type as the subpackage xml.unicode.wstring, and upgrading of several subpackages. For other information on Python/XML, see "XML and Python" or "Python for XML/SGML Processing."
December 08, 1998. A new submission from Excosoft AB to the W3C defines a "DrawML Specification." References: NOTE-drawml-19981203, W3C Note, 03-Dec-1998. Designed as an XML application, "DrawML is a 2D scalable graphics language designed to facilitate the creation of simple technical drawings. Furthermore (and most importantly), DrawML focuses on the process of maintaining and refining a drawing. A drawing should be as easy to update as the document it resides in. The reason for the focus on maintenance is the increased importance of intranets. Up to now internet technology has been used primarily for publishing. People working within an intranet expect to create and change documents on-the-fly. Drawml drawings are embedded in XML documents in the same way as tables are embedded. Elements from the parent DTD are reused inside drawings. DrawML defines algorithms to handle positioning, resizing and rubberband connections between visual elements. The submission includes a DTD and two Java class definitions: DrawMLShape and DrawMLPainter." Excosoft contact addresses are provided in the Submission Request, and a more complete description of DrawML is given in the W3C 'Comment on the DrawML submission', from Chris Lilley.
December 07, 1998. Richard L. Goerwitz of the Brown University Scholarly Technology Group has announced the availability of 'beta' binary and source distributions for Xmlparse, an XML Validator Built Using Stock Programmer's Tools." Richard wrote Xmlparse, in part, in order to demonstrate "that it really is possible to write a reasonable Unicode-aware validator using some recent, patched versions of these tools." A technical report "STG's XML 1.0 Reference Validator" provides documentation on the background to this validating parser. Xmlparse RPM binaries are available for RedHat Linux 4.2 and 5.2; also for Sun SPARC Solaris 2.4+. In order to compile Xmlparse, you will need some version of GNU Flex augmented with James Lauth's Unicode patches, as per documentation. An example of how Xmlparse may be used as a back end for a web-based validation system is provided in the XML validator maintained by Brown University's Scholarly Technology Group: see http://www.stg.brown.edu/service/xmlvalid/. The author solicits feedback on the software, including bug reports and patches.
December 07, 1998. A recent Microsoft announcement describes the XML Interchange Format (XIF) as "an interchange format for meta data described by the Open Information Model (OIM). OIM is a set of meta data specifications to facilitate sharing and reuse in the application development and data warehousing domains. OIM 1.0 consists of over 200 types organized in easy-to-use and easy-to-extend subject areas. . . The XML Interchange Format (XIF) for OIM enables the exchange of meta data between heterogeneous repositories and tool stores. . . As an open, industry-standard model accommodating meta data of software development and data warehousing tools, the Open Information Model (OIM) provides a content-rich, yet vendor-neutral specification of meta data. Vendors supporting XIF will be able to import and export meta data, such as analysis and design models, component descriptions, and data warehousing transformations." See also "Microsoft Announces News about Microsoft Repository and the Open Information Model." Viasoft and Unisys have issued press releases announcing support for XIF; see the section "XML Industry News."
December 07, 1998. "Reformulating HTML in XML" is the title of a W3C Working Draft published '5th December 1998' (WD-html-in-xml-19981205). The editors are Dave Raggett (W3C), Frank Boumphrey (HTML Writers Guild), Murray Altheim (Sun Microsystems), and Ted Wugofski (Over the Moon Productions). The working draft "reformulates HTML 4.0 as an XML application and defines the corresponding namespaces. Document profiles are introduced as a basis for interoperability guarantees for different subsets or supersets of HTML in an increasingly heterogeneous environment. Rather than restate the semantics of HTML 4.0, these are defined by the W3C Recommendation for HTML 4.0 unless otherwise overridden in this specification. Compatibility with existing HTML browsers is possible by following a small set of guidelines." Produced by the W3C HTML Working Grouph as part of the W3C HTML Activity, this working draft "is intended for early discussion in a process leading to drafting a Proposed Recommendation on reformulating HTML as an application of XML. . . Voyager is the code name for HTML reformulated as an application of XML. Voyager specifies document profiles as XML namespaces each with their own web address (URI). The HTML Working Group will specify a set of Voyager Document Profiles for use in particular domains (such as mobile and television). . . It is expected that non-W3C entities (companies, consortiums, other standards organizations) will specify Platforms. Platforms consist of Voyager Profiles, platform-specific technologies, constraints, and usage requirements. [Thus] Voyager is more than the reformulation of HTML in XML. Voyager modularizes HTML into a collection of tag sets. These tag sets are building blocks which developers may use to build innovative products with World Wide Web connectivity. More importantly, these tag sets serve as design points of conformance for the content community."
December 02, 1998. Software developers at Language Processing Technology Ltd. announced the availability of a new XML DTD/Document Editor. Xpert is an XML document and DTD editing tool [aka 'XML-based Integrated Information Management System'] which "enables you to create your XML document and DTD in a easy and fast way; it also provides Editor for stylesheet and browser." The developers of Xpert request user feedback on the tool, which is now available for download.
December 02, 1998. New database entry for IBM's Bean Markup Language. The Bean Markup Language (BML) was released by the IBM alphaWorks lab in conjunction with several other XML tools and technologies at the XML '98 Conference, November 1998. BML and the other software tools were distributed on CDROM, and are available now for download as well. Written in Java for all Java platforms, BML is "an XML-based component configuration or wiring language customized for the JavaBean component model. The language is designed to be directly executable; i.e., processing a BML script will result in a running application configured as described in the script. The BML language can be used to create new beans, access, and configure beans by setting/getting their properties and fields, bind events from some beans to other beans, and call arbitrary methods in beans." The developers of the Bean Markup Language have provided two implementations of BML: "the first is an interpreter that 'plays' a BML script to create the desired bean hierarchy (which is then a running application). This is implemented using reflection and is very small approximately a 35K jar file (without class compression). The second implementation is a compiler that compiles any BML script into reflection-free Java code. The advantage of this is that it allows one to capture the inter-component structure of the application using a first-class language designed for that purpose and yet be able to compile it into 'regular' Java code with basically no performance loss."
December 01, 1998. Ralph Ferris of Fujitsu Software Corporation has posted an announcement for a new XLink/XPointer Developer's List. The email forum has been launched "in order to promote wide discussion of XLink/XPointer development issues." To subscribe to the new xlxp-dev list, send an email message to majordomo@fsc.fujitsu.com with the following in the body of the message: subscribe xlxp-dev. Other mailing lists dedicated to XML and related markup technologies are referenced in the master list of "SGML/XML Discussion Groups and Mailing Lists." Information on the W3C's XML Linking Language is accessible in the main XLink/XPointer document.
December 01, 1998. A document on the management of user preferences has been issued by the W3C as a NOTE: "Composite Capability/Preference Profiles (CC/PP): A User Side Framework for Content Negotiation." References: NOTE-CCPP-19981130, W3C NOTE 30 November 1998. Its editors are Franklin Reynolds (Nokia Research Center), Johan Hjelm (W3C/Ericsson), Spencer Dawkins (Nortel), and Sandeep Singhal (IBM). This public review draft is a "revision of the working draft dated 1998-10-05, incorporating suggestions received in review comments and further deliberations of the W3C Mobile Access Interest Group. It also incorporates suggestions resulting from reviews by members of the IETF CONNEG working group and the WAPForum." Overview: "A Composite Capability/Preference Profile (CC/PP) is a collection of the capabilities and preferences associated with user and the agents used by the user to access the World Wide Web. These user agents include the hardware platform, system software and applications used by the user. User agent capabilities and references can be thought of as metadata or properties and descriptions of the user agent hardware and software. In this note we describe a method for using RDF, the Resource Description Format of the W3C, to create a general, yet extensible framework for describing user preferences and device capabilities. This information can be provided by the user to servers and content providers. The servers can use this information describing the user's preferences to customize the service or content provided. The ability of RDF to reference profile information via URLs assists in minimizing the number of network transactions required to adapt content to a device, while the framework fits well into the current and future protocols being developed a the W3C and the WAP Forum."
December 01, 1998. A recent communique from Heikki Toivonen (CITEC Software Ltd., Vaasa, Finland) describes Citec's MultiDocZilla product, now under development. Citec is working on a project to enhance the upcoming Netscape Communicator 5.0 with SGML/XML/HyTime capabilities. They are using the Next Generation Layout engine as a base and are adding features that are essential to customers in fields that have rigorous demands for technical documentation, such as the aircraft, automotive, military and telecommunications industries. MultidocZilla is a successor to Citec's Multidoc Pro processor and SGML browser. MultidocZilla was first demonstrated at the XML '98 Conference in Chicago, and is due to be released in the first quarter of 1999. A MultidocZilla preview program will soon be available for interested parties. Those that have a serious interest in this technology, are willing to participate in product testing and think they may have something to contribute may contact zilla@citec.fi for details. See also the recent press release.
November 30, 1998. Dick Grune (Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam) presented a paper on SGML/XML parsing in the closing plenary session at the Markup Technologies '98 Conference. The presentation title: "Parsing - Who Needs It? SGML/XML and Computer Science." The slides and text from this presentation are now available online, and may be of interest to parser designers and other software developers. Overview: "SGML was clearly not designed to interface seamlessly with existing computer science parsing techniques. Most of these techniques were already very well-known in the beginning of the 80s, when SGML was designed. The syntax issues of SGML in ISO 8879 are expressed in completely novel terminology and the parsing requirements do not match known algorithms and techniques. The results were not favourable: few computer scientists have worked on parsing SGML, although many software designers and programmers have. Most computer scientists found parsing SGML a less than attractive challenge, and some were daunted by its alien terminology. The situation has deteriorated with the advent of HTML, which had a syntax defined more or less by what Netscape or Microsoft could get away with. Unsurprisingly, this did not lead to a strong basis and stable software. The developers of XML got the point, and did it right, both from the parsing point of view, the terminology, and the SGML compatibility." [from the Introduction] Note that the text of Dick Grune's book Parsing Techniques - A Practical Guide is available online. The book "treats parsing in its own right, in greater depth than is found in most computer science and linguistics books. It offers a clear, accessible, and thorough discussion of many different parsing techniques with their interrelations and applicabilities, including error recovery techniques. Unlike most books, it treats (almost) all parsing methods, not just the popular ones. . ."
November 30, 1998. Simon St.Laurent posted an announcement for the availability of the Coins technology draft specification, Version 4. Coins Version 4 is being developed under an Open Source Software license, and its source code is freely available for download. Coins ['Connecting XML Elements and JavaBeans'] is "an extensible system for processing XML documents, and provides a simple API for processing XML documents as trees of object. Coins supports the use of pre-existing Java Beans, providing several alternative approaches to connecting the data of an XML document with various types of Java objects." Coins thus "provides a general infrastructure for building Java applications and processing XML documents. The association between application document elements and application classes is mediated by Coins, which are the classes that are used to instantiate the DOM elements. There are several types of Coin classes, which provide different kinds of services to application objects, depending on the level of integration desired. Coins binding documents specify the application objects that are to be associated with the DOM instance that is created when an application document is loaded into a Coins document cache, the initialization of these application objects, and the construction of relationships, beyond those of the DOM, between them." Coins version 4.0: "1) loads documents into a configurable, high-performance document cache; 2) supports multiple caches; 3) associates objects with document elements based on the document markup language, using a binding group and binding documents; 4) allows applications to share binding groups or use their own; 5) allows binding groups to share binding documents or use their own; 6) provides complete flexibility for associating separately developed Java classes and markup languages; 7) provides full access to document structure, content, and attributes, including hyperlinks within and between documents; 8) supports W3C DOM API, supports namespaces, supports a subset of XLink and XPointer; 9) supports a flexible computation model useful for client, server, and embedded applications; 10) supports a simple yet powerful security model; 11) uses its own mechanisms for bootstrapping, thus allowing easy configurability and customization; 12) supports new URL ClassPath protocol." Paul Rabin (JXML, Inc.) is the Technical Editor of the Coins version 4.0 draft specification. See further information on Coins from the JXML web site.
November 27, 1998. The W3C XML Fragment Working Group has recently completed a set of requirements and has submitted the document to the W3C as a NOTE, "XML Fragment Interchange Requirements Version 1.0.". References: NOTE-XML-FRAG-REQ-19981123, W3C Note 23-Nov-1998; Editor: Paul Grosso (Arbortext). The W3C Fragment Working Group is chaired by Paul Grosso of Arbortext, and is one of five principal working groups involved in the W3C XML Activity. This WG has been chartered "to define a way to send fragments of an XML document without having to send all or part of the parent document as well; the delivered fragments can either be viewed or edited immediately or accumulated for later use, assembly, or other processing." The Requirements document abstract: "The XML standard supports logical documents composed of possibly several entities. It may be desirable to view or edit one or more of the entities or parts of entities while having no interest, need, or ability to view or edit the entire document. The problem, then, is how to provide to a recipient of such a fragment the appropriate information about the context that fragment had in the larger document that is not available to the recipient. The XML Fragment WG is chartered with defining a way to send fragments of an XML document -- regardless of whether the fragments are predetermined entities or not -- without having to send all of the containing document up to the part in question. This document specifies the design principles and requirements for this activity." Note: see now the posting from Paul Grosso inviting comment: "Publication of W3C XML Fragment WG Requirements Document," 1998-12-01.
November 27, 1998. Five (5) new white papers on XML are now available from the web site of OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards). Contributed by OASIS Members and Sponsor Members, these white papers are designed "to provide in-depth information to help the readers better understand the state of structured information standards today and where they will be tomorrow." References with brief abstracts/extracts are provided in the collection of "XML Articles and Papers."
November 26, 1998. General information is now available for the XTech '99 Conference, to be held March 7-11, 1999 at the San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, California. XTech '99 is presented by the Graphic Communications Association, co-hosted by OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards), and sponsored by Sun Microsystems. The Conference Co-Chairs are Jon Bosak (Chair, W3C XML Activity; Sun Microsystems) and Tim Bray (Co-Editor, W3C XML Specification; Textuality, Inc.).

"XTech '99 brings the XML community's technical leaders together with developers and technical managers for an intense look at the leading edge of XML software technology and culture. It is intended for application developers, system architects, system integrators, technical publishing professionals, Web developers, technical managers, academics, and anyone with a need to know about the latest applications of XML technology. Client-and server-oriented technical tracks will discuss the technical nuts and bolts of XML implementation, with a sharp focus on working tools and applications. Technical issues involved will include interoperability, vocabularies, back-end processing and front-end display, and use of the growing family of XML-based standards. Pre-conference tutorials provide both background and in-depth technical discussion to bring attendees up to speed on the latest developments with XML, its related family of standards, vocabularies, and implementation issues. Tutorials will be one or two days in length. The XML Interoperability Exposition, XIO '99, offers an opportunity for the world's leading developers and suppliers of XML technology to demonstrate the interoperability of their tools. XIO '99 exhibitors will be challenged to show XML interoperability using a selection of XML documents and data files provided by the conference chairs." Proposals for tutorials and conference presentations should be sent to xtech99@gca.org, ideally prior to Monday, December 14, 1998. For more information about participation in the exposition (XIO '99), contact Julie Desmond at +1 617 698 0277 or via email.
November 26, 1998. Allen Renear (President, ACH) posted a reminder that the deadline for submission of abstracts, for papers and panels sessions for the ACH/ALLC '99 Conference is December 1, 1998. The ACH and ALLC invite submissions of 1,500 to 2,000 words on any aspect of humanities computing, defined broadly as the use of computing methodologies in humanities research, teaching, or archives. Typically, several presentations at the annual ACH/ALLC conference will focus upon unique challenges in the design and application of markup for 'humanities text' in support of computer-assisted textual research. Now in its 19th year, "the conference welcomes work across the humanities disciplines, including (but not limited to) languages and literature, history, philosophy, anthropology, and art history; the creative arts, such as creative writing, art and music; cultural studies and anthropology; computational linguistics and corpus linguistics." The 1999 joint annual conference of the Association for Computers and the Humanities and the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing ("Digital Libraries for Humanities Scholarship and Teaching") will take place from June 9-13, 1999 at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. It will be hosted by the Electronic Text Center, the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, and the The Instructional Technology Group of ITC (Information Technology and Communication). For other information, see the main conference information page.
November 26, 1998. Marion Elledge of GCA has posted a final call for papers for the XML Europe '99 Conference. XML Europe '99 will be held April 26-30, 1999, in Granada, Spain at the Palacio de Exposiciones y Congresos. All papers must be submitted electronically to Europe99@dpsl.co.uk by December 4, 1998. From the announcement: "XML Europe is the GCA's annual comprehensive event on applications, trends, and technologies that support the use of the Extensible Markup Language and the Standard Generalized Markup Language (ISO 8879). The use of XML has gown steadily over the past two years, showing that the Web is more than just a publishing medium; it is changing the way organizations do business today. XML is a hot new tool for e-commerce and EDI applications and has brought an additional focus to this conference. XML Europe '99 focuses on both the management decisions and technological choices facing corporate and commercial publishers in this era of increased competition, falling prices, and sophisticated consumers. Whether you are publishing on the Internet/Intranet, CD, paper, or on all of them, XML Europe '99 will provide a programme offering insights at the management, user, and technical expert level for improving your business processes." For other information, see the call for participation, the welcome letter, or the general information page.
November 25, 1998. John Price-Wilkin (University of Michigan, Humanities Text Initiative) has posted an announcement concerning the availability of final reports from the summer meeting TEI and XML in Digital Libraries. Sponsored by the Digital Library Federation, the meeting was held on June 30 - July 1, 1998, Jefferson Building LJ119, Library of Congress, Washington, DC. Included in the reports is a presentation from C.M. Sperberg-McQueen, [Plenary:] "XML and What It Will Mean for Libraries." "The meeting focused, for the first time, on library applications of the TEI Guidelines, specifically in the digital library setting. Invited guests included Michael Sperberg-McQueen (co-editor TEI Guidelines and co-editor XML specification; University of Illinois, Chicago) and Lou Burnard (co-editor TEI Guidelines; Oxford University). Final reports and recommendations from the three workgroups are now available online at http://www.hti.umich.edu/misc/ssp/workshops/teidlf/." In this connection, readers may wish to scan the document dedicated to one aspect of SGML/XML and digital libraries initiatives: "MARC (MAchine Readable Cataloging) and SGML/XML."
November 25, 1998. Lars Marius Garshol recently announced that his XSA system for "exchanging information over the network and automatically acting on it is almost ready for use." The application has been polished, documented (complete with a DTD), and supported with working code. Lars solicits feedback on the (beta) application design and code functionality of XSA, which may be reviewed at http://birk105.studby.uio.no/www_work/xsa/. XSA (XML Software Autoupdate) is "an XML-based system that allows anyone who is interested to discover new versions of software products as they are released automatically by polling XML documents describing the products. It is mainly intended to help software index maintainers keep their indexes up to date." Here's how it's designed to work: "every software maintainer publishes a small XML file (the XSA document) which lists that maintainer's software products, version numbers and relevant addresses. Any maintainer of a software list that knows the URL of the XSA document can then set up a program to automatically check the XSA document for new releases and changes to product names and addresses." The XSA application would appear to be very useful, if indeed software maintainers can be urged to keep XSA documents up-to-date.
November 25, 1998. A communique of November 22, 1998 from Ralf Westphal draws attention to "a (very) informal propsal for an XML language to help transform RDBMS 'legacy data' to XML. XOSL - Xml Ole db Stylesheet Language - is being designed to make the conversion of table based data to XML as easy as possible by bringing the conversion code and the target format (XML) as close together as possible." The XOSL web site at http://www.riposte.com/xosl/ has an overview, links to a XOSL reference manual, and "lots of sample code and a proof-of-concept COM-component to help one understand XOSL's intention."
November 25, 1998. A large number of product and business announcements concerning SGML/XML were made at the XML '98 Exposition, Conference, and Markup Technologies '98 Conference in Chicago, November 15-20, 1998. Some of the more important news items are summarized below. Other stories are now referenced in the "XML Articles" section and in the "XML Industry News" section. Additional notices will be posted in the XML Industry News section soon. Dale Dougherty (Songline Studios) has prepared a conference report for XML '98, "XML '98: The Gathering."
November 23, 1998. Ten days ago, the W3C Web page listing Position Papers for QL'98 - The [W3C] Query Languages Workshop registered thirteen papers. As of November 23, 1998, some forth-nine (49) papers are listed. We have in clear evidence a broad interest in XML and Query Languages.
November 23, 1998. IBM may have made the largest splash at the software exposition of the recent Chicago XML '98 Conference. If we measure by the sheer 'number of new XML tools and technologies introduced', there would be no doubt, since IBM [alphaworks] demonstrated some nine new XML technologies, issued on a CDROM disc to exposition attendees as well. In addition, IBM has launched a new Web site, designed as a "portal [which] will provide the Internet community with the latest information, tools, and educational resources relating to this emerging [XML] standard." A transcript of Simon Phipps' chat entitled "IBM, e-business, & XML" is available online.

The nine new IBM tools "to support the emergence of the new standard in data integration and interchange are part of alphaWorks' growing collection of XML tools that support the needs and objectives of developers as they explore developing applications based on the XML standard." They are available online as well as on CDROM. In summary: 1) Bean Markup Language (BML) is an XML-based language for accessing and configuring JavaBeans. The BML language can be used to create new beans, access and configure beans by setting/getting their properties and fields, bind events from some beans to other beans, and call arbitrary methods in beans. 2) The XML Editor Maker automatically builds visual editors from XML schemas (e.g. DTDs). Given a DTD, the Editor Maker builds a Java editor that can be used to edit XML documents. 3) DataCraft provides an XML view of databases and enables the publishing of XML forms to the web. This visual and navigational query system is based on XML and RDF (Resource Description Framework). 4) Dynamic XML with Java adds XML power to server-side Java (JSP) and Java-based work flow applications. It is a processor which allows developers to seamlessly integrate Java into XML documents by automatically transforming and interpreting XML files which contain Java code. 5) PatML is a pattern match and replacement system for transforming XML documents to XML or non-XML documents. The user specifies a set of rules for pattern matches and replacement, and the system automatically compiles these rules such that any given XML document can be transformed based upon these rules. 6) TeXML is an XML document formatting solution. It provides a path from XML into the TeX formatting language. From there, users may process to PostScript or another print format. 7) BeanMaker eliminates the required writing of Java classes to process XML documents. The XML BeanMaker automatically generates Java bean classes for any given Document Type Definition (DTD), and code to provide evidence in support of those beans. 8) XMLTreeDiff is a package of beans that provide the ability to efficiently differentiate and update DOM trees, just like 'diff' and 'patch' differentiate and update data files. 9) XML Productivity Kit is a companion technology to the XML Parser for Java, which provides the next level of programming resources needed to quickly build and deploy robust XML applications using the Java language."
November 23, 1998. In a 'Standards Update' session at the Chicago Markup Technologies '98 Conference, Dr. James D. Mason (ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34 Acting Chairman; Lockheed Martin Energy Systems) presented a report on the current status of the ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34 Working Groups, which is now documented in the "Resolutions of the ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34 Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 9-13 November 1998" [ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34 N0023]. ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34 (Information Technology -- Document Description and Processing Languages) is now the ISO subcommitee responsible for "standardization in the field of document structures, languages and related facilities for the description and processing of compound and hypermedia documnts." This ISO subcommitee has liaison relationships to other standards bodies, including the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Working Group 1 (Information Description) activities are to include: SGML (ISO 8879), SDIF (ISO 9069), Registration Procedures for SGML Public Identifiers (ISO/IEC 9070), Technical Reports (ISO TR 9573), Conformance Testing for SGML System (ISO/IEC 13673), and APIs for document processing. The activities of Working Group 2 (Information Presentation) are to include: DSSSL (ISO/IEC 10179), Fonts (ISO/IEC 9541), Font Registration (ISO/IEC 10036), SPDL (ISO/IEC 10180), and Font Services (ISO/IEC TR 15413). The activities of Working Group 3 (Information Association) are to include: Hypermedia, HyTime (ISO/IEC 10744), Topic Navigation Maps (ISO/IEC 13250), ISMID -- Interchange Standard for Modifiable Interactive Documents, [ISO-] HTML (ISO/IEC 15445), and SMDL (ISO/IEC 10743).
November 23, 1998. As acting convenor of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34 WG3, Eliot Kimber has issued a request for comments on the draft Topic Navigation Map (Topic Map) standard, ISO/IEC 13250, which is now out for ballot to become a final committee draft (CD). Eliot says: "The Topic Map standard is similar to RDF in some ways (but has an essentially different focus and intended domain of application). It is also designed to be implementable using Xlink. It defines a relatively simple (but still powerful) approach to representing rich relationships among information objects. If you are working with Xlink, especially extended links, or thinking about how you might use them productively, I urge you to take a look at the standard." The current draft 'Final CD Text for ISO/IEC 13250 Topic Navigation Maps [ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC34 N008]' is available in HTML, SGML, and PDF formats. See, in addition to the full text of Kimber's posting, a collection of articles on Topic Navigation Maps from Michel Biezunski, and the local database entry, "Topic Navigation Maps." Note: A sample topic map has been installed on the HyTime User's Group Web site; "this map should work with Fujitsu's latest HyBrick distribution. The sample demonstrates the Topic Map ideas and demonstrates the use of Xlink and Xpointers, in particular, using out-of-line extended links." [Kimber]
November 23, 1998. James Clark has announced the availability of the expat - XML Parser Toolkit Version 1.0.1, containing bug fixes. Expat "is an XML 1.0 parser written in C which aims to be fully conforming, but is currently not a validating XML processor. . . [the distribution] contains the xmlwf application, which uses the xmlparse library. The arguments to xmlwf are one or more files which are each to be checked for well-formedness. An option -d dir can be specified; for each well-formed input file the corresponding canonical XML will be written to dir/f, where f is the filename (without any path) of the input file. A -x option will cause references to external general entities to be processed." A new test version of expat which adds support for checking of lexical aspects of XML namespaces specification is also available. Expat is released under the Mozilla Public License Version 1.0, but wDWith this release of expat, 'as a special exception', one may elect to use the GNU General Public License. See related information in the database entry, 'expat - XML parser in C'.
November 18, 1998. At the XML '98 Conference in Chicago, SoftQuad Software Inc. publicly announced XMetaL, described as a "full-featured XML/SGML content authoring tool." The XML/SGML editor will be available in March 1999 at $495 for a single user license. The rendering model is CSS for now, and the tool provides an interactive CSS stylesheet editor. DTDs are no longer required to be compiled. Users familiar with the SoftQuad Author/Editor and HoTMetaL products will find many familiar editing features in XMetaL, which "provides authors with a familiar word processing-like environment and a rich array of powerful authoring aids, including multiple document views and context-sensitive property inspectors. The user interface features configurable window management, customizable toolbars and tear-off menus. XMetaL's Resource Manager provides drag-and-drop management of boilerplate text, document fragments, logos, macros and more, both locally and across corporate networks. XMetaL's extensive customization capabilities maximize author productivity by enabling the delivery of content specific interfaces. For delivering customization and integration services, XMetaL supports industry standard interfaces including COM, DOM, JavaScript and VBScript. XMetaL creates documents that conform to arbitrary XML and SGML DTDs (both ASCII and compiled). XMetaL conforms to numerous standards including SGML, XML, CALS tables, DOM, CSS and HTML." See the full text of the SoftQuad announcement for other details.
November 18, 1998. The W3C document "Namespaces in XML" has been published as a Proposed Recommendation. The editors are Tim Bray, Dave Hollander, and Andrew Layman. The review period for this proposed recommendation ends on December 18, 1998. Within two weeks following December 18th, the document would be expected to advance to a W3C Recommendation.
November 17, 1998. Inso Corporation has extended the functionality of its DynaText Professional Publishing System to incorporate a powerful set of electronic performance support features. DynaText hypertext documents thus become interactive user interfaces for task-driven operations, similar functionally to IETMs (Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals).

According to a recent announcement, "Inso Corporation and General Dynamics Defense Systems' TechSight business unit today announced DynaText/Technicians Edition (TE) at the XML '98 eXpo. DynaText/TE is an advanced document delivery system jointly developed by Inso and TechSight that provides a complete, integrated environment for technicians performing installation, maintenance, and repair procedures on complex equipment. DynaText/TE enables manufacturers in industries such as airline/aerospace, transportation, tele-communications, Department of Defense, and heavy equipment manufacturing to reduce maintenance and repair costs by helping technicians to be more efficient and provide higher quality and more timely service. A set of plug-ins to the DynaText Professional Publishing System, DynaText/TE provides specialized components that are used to process and search 'intelligent' SGML/XML documents - documents that encode expert knowledge and processing logic. Operating on these intelligent documents, and through support for interoperability with other applications, DynaText/TE enables technicians to quickly find relevant information to efficiently conduct procedures. DynaText/TE includes a 'conduct procedure mode' to guide technicians through procedures in a step-by-step manner. The step-by-step environment supports complex-graphics viewing and, through support for dynamic data exchange, provides two-way communication with external processes such as diagnostic, work-order, and parts-ordering systems. This unparalleled, open, and interoperable system provides technician with a single environment - from start to finish - for effectively completing complex procedures." See the complete text of the press release for other details.
November 17, 1998. SoftQuad HoTMetaL and XMetaL (an XML editor under development) have been given a new lease on life with the recent formation of SoftQuad Software, Inc. An announcement from the new company carries the title "SoftQuad Software, Inc. Formed by Management Buyout of SoftQuad, Inc., Affirms Commitment to HTML, XML Market Leadership." An earlier press release from SoftQuad Software, Inc. revealed that the assets of SoftQuad had been sold to a group that included several SoftQuad employees. The new announcement clarifies many details about the participants and about the new company's goals for SGML/XML/HTML product development.
November 17, 1998. "Object Design, Inc., a leading provider of enterprise and embedded data management solutions, today announced eXcelon, a revolutionary eXtensible Markup Language (XML) data server that enables companies to build enterprise Web applications using XML. XML is a new universal data standard from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). eXcelon is a high-performance, highly scalable data server that caches and serves all information to enterprise applications and Web servers as XML. eXcelon is an easy-to-use, general-purpose solution that works with all data sources, application servers and client software and it fully complies with XML and all related standards as defined by the W3C. eXcelon can be used as an application cache for existing data sources, or as a complete data management system for new XML-based applications. eXcelon automatically stores, caches and delivers XML data across the middle tier of multi-tier applications and guarantees that the data will be kept 100 percent up-to-date and transactionally consistent at all times." See the full press release for other information.
November 17, 1998. webMethods Inc. and Microsoft Corp. have announced a collaborative XML development effort to create "data-driven Web applications, including sophisticated new technology for querying XML documents. . . By addressing common application requirements such as query and data retrieval, Microsoft and webMethods are helping evolve XML from a document-centric markup language to the basis for a new generation of interoperable enterprise and Internet distributed applications." See further details in the text of the announcement.
November 13, 1998. Among the thirteen position papers submitted for QL'98 - The [W3C] Query Languages Workshop thus far is a proposal for an XML Query Language (XQL) based upon XSL pattern syntax. The paper was authored principally by Jonathan Robie (Texcel, Inc.), Joe Lapp (webMethods, Inc.), and David Schach (Microsoft Corporation), with contributions by Michael Hyman and Jonathan Marsh (both of Microsoft Corporation). The XQL paper proposes to use the XSL pattern language as the basis for a general query mechanism. "The XML Query Language (XQL) is a notation for addressing and filtering the elements and text of XML documents. XQL is a natural extension to the XSL pattern syntax. It provides a concise, understandable notation for pointing to specific elements and for searching for nodes with particular characteristics. This proposal was provided in September 1998 to the XSL Working Group (http://www.w3.org/Style/XSL/Group/1998/09/XQL-proposal.html) as input when considering extensions to the XSL pattern syntax. XQL [thus] builds upon the capabilities XSL provides for identifying classes of nodes, by adding Boolean logic, filters, indexing into collections of nodes, and more. XQL is designed specifically for XML documents. It is a general purpose query language, providing a single syntax that can be used for queries, addressing, and patterns. XQL is concise, simple, and powerful." A companion document by the same authors "Querying and Transforming XML, also submitted as a QL '98 position paper, "describes the benefits of basing query and transformation languages for XML on the XSL transformation language and the extensions to the pattern language proposed here." Compare the proposal "XML-QL: A Query Language for XML," submitted to the W3C as a NOTE (NOTE-xml-ql-19980819) on August 7, 1998. XML-QL uses a 'SELECT-WHERE construct, like SQL, and borrows features of query languages recently developed by the database research community for semistructured data.' See other references in "XML and Query Languages."
November 13, 1998. The "XML Extractor/ Assembler" is an approach to the generation of XML from legacy data, under development by News Internet Services. An XML Extractor demo (for Windows NT) may be downloaded. The XML Extractor is NIS' tool for exporting data from relational databases into XML, released as Open Source under the LGPL License. See also, referenced in the XML Articles section, the description by Jeff Walsh: "XML Integration Tool for Databases Revealed," InfoWorld Volume 20, Issue 45 (November 9, 1998).
November 13, 1998. Enno Derksen posted an announcement for the first 'general use' version (1.05) of XML::DOM. XML::DOM is a perl module for building DOM Level 1 compliant document structures. It uses the XML::Parser module (currently version 2.16), written by Clark Cooper. The XML::Parser module itself is a Perl interface to James Clark's expat XML parser. The XML::DOM::Parser "parses XML strings or files and builds a data structure that conforms to the API of the Document Object Model as described at http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-DOM-Level-1; when you create an XML::DOM::Parser object, the parse and parsefile methods create an XML::DOM::Document object from the specified input. This Document object can then be examined, modified and written back out to a file or converted to a string. module adds several node types that are not part of the DOM spec (yet.) These are: ElementDecl (for <!ELEMENT ...> declarations), AttlistDecl (for <!ATTLIST ...> declarations), XMLDecl (for <?xml ...?> declarations) and AttDef (for attribute definitions in an AttlistDecl.)" The XML::DOM::Parser module may be downloaded from http://www.erols.com/enno/dom. For more on DOM, see "W3C Document Object Model (DOM), Level 1 Specification."
November 13, 1998. A third W3C Working Draft of the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P 1.0) Specification has been published as part of the P3P Activity. References: WD-P3P-19981109, W3C Working Draft 9-November-1998. "The P3P 1.0 specification consists of three sub-specification documents. P3P 1.0 compliant implementations must abide by the conformance requirements of each. 1) Syntax Specification; 2) Harmonized Vocabulary Specification; 3) Base Data Set Specification. The Platform for Privacy Preferences Project (P3P) enables Web sites to express their privacy practices and enables users to exercise preferences over those practices. P3P compliant products will allow users to be informed of site practices (in both machine and human readable formats), to delegate decisions to their computer when appropriate, and to tailor their relationship to specific sites. P3P uses XML (using the RDF data model) for the exchange of structured data and assertions." A data schema corresponding to the P3P base data set documents the required base data elements and sets.
November 13, 1998. Simon St. Laurent posted an announcement "Creating an Open Source XLink SAX Parser Filter" which describes preliminary work on an XLink Filter, and invites contributions/comments. "The XLink Filter Project is attempting to create a layer that can rest between a SAX-compliant parser and Java applications that uses the SAX API to retrieve information from XML documents. The XLink Filter will be an open source software project, built using Java. The XLink Filter project hopes to provide support for the entire XLink specification, and provide sample applications that implement the actions involved in linking. Initially, the filter will support simple and extended links between documents that have been visited by the user; eventually, it will provide support for extended hub groups to allow pre-fetching of links." For other XLink software, see "XLink/XPointer Software."
November 11, 1998. Marshall Industries has announced a new initiative called ECMData designed to "enable the automatic retrieval, indexing, and cataloging of electronic manufacturers' data sheets and technical papers over the Internet." ECMData (Electronic Component Manufacturer Data Sheet Inventory Specification) is a proposed standard that would use XML as the principal document format, as presented in the Electronic Component Manufacturer Datasheet Library DTD. Related standards are planned for parametric part information (ECMparameter) and standard pricing information (ECMprice). See other references in the database entry, "ECMData - Electronic Component Manufacturer Data Sheet Inventory Specification."
November 11, 1998. Oracle Corporation has published a technical whitepaper outlining the company's plans for XML in Oracle8i. See: "XML Support in Oracle8i and Beyond." According to the associated XML Overview, "broad efforts are underway within Oracle to deliver additional XML capabilities up and down our product stack. With its integrated Java and XML support to complement its industry-leading portability, reliability, and scalability, Oracle8i gives developers a leg up in satisfying the increasing demand for access to information. Oracle8i and XML help companies create strategic advantage by dramatically simplifying the acquisition, integration, repurposing, and exchange of information over the Internet. Once that XML-based information is safely stored in an Oracle database, it can be searched and mined and processed and presented in familiar, powerful ways." The press release clarifies that "Oracle XML Support Enhances Oracle8i and iFS, and Crosses Entire Internet Platform: XML support in Oracle8i is comprised of three key components: The Oracle XML Parser provides programmatic processing of XML documents or document fragments. Oracle iFS (Internet File System), the new next-generation file system included with Oracle8i that gives users 'write once, read anywhere' content in a heterogeneous enterprise, will include XML support to automate parsing and rendering of data between XML and the database. In addition, XML-enabled 'section searching' in Oracle interMedia will provide more precise searches over structured documents. See also the Oracle entry in the 'XML Industry Support' page, and "Built-in database support will integrate with DOM on client side", a Seybold Report article by Mark Walter.
November 09, 1998. The new technical journal Markup Languages: Theory & Practice represents a landmark publication in the domain of markup theory and practice. Three elements of good news: (1) the journal is very affordable, even for individuals; (2) the first issue has already appeared, and (3) the first issue is superb! The inaugural issue of MLTP begins with an introductory commentary by the editors C. Michael Sperberg-McQueen and B. Tommie Usdin, welcoming the readership and outlining the objectives of the new journal. The lead feature article by Steve DeRose and Andries van Dam charts the course for a future generation of intelligent hypertext software - by taking a look back at the FRESS system and some other computer-aided hypertext systems built in the 1960s. An article by Richard Matzen analyzes the problems of DTD complexity in the case of DTDs that use exceptions, proposing models and software tools to deal with these issues. An article by José Carlos Ramalho and colleagues at the University of Minho, Portugal, addresses what is now recognized as a serious limitation in SGML(-based) markup languages: that content validity in marked-up documents is at risk because these markup languages can neither formally express nor validate primitive 'ontological' and relational semantics governing the encoded information. Alan Karben presents a wonderful case study and success story involving the content-reuse system of The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, which makes extensive use of SGML and XML. Lauren Wood 'describes the motivation behind the work on the W3C DOM, as well as the rationale behind some of the design decisions.' In a book review essay entitled "Structure Rules!," Chet Ensign weighs in on the side of DTDs that 'Matter After All.' Shorter review articles and squibs include Tony Graham's "Character Set Refresher" and annotated Tables of Contents by Deborah A. Lapeyre supporting Chet Ensign's book review essay. For other information on the journal, see the MIT Web site mitpress.mit.edu/MLANG, the journal announcement, and the description in the serials document.
November 09, 1998. Richard Tobin (Centre for Cognitive Science, University of Edinburgh) reports that the RXP-based XML checker now has an option to validate as well as check for well-formedness. Use the checkbox on the form. 'A few minor aspects of validity are not checked, such as PE nesting.' See the list of other online XML checking and validating tools: "Check or Validate XML."
November 09, 1998. A technical overview and introduction to the W3C Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) Project has been published in the form of a NOTE, "The Platform for Privacy Preferences." References: NOTE-P3P-CACM-19981106, P3P Note 06-November-1998. The document editors include Joseph Reagle (W3C/LCS/MIT) and Lorrie Faith Cranor (AT&T Labs-Research). Summary: "The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)'s Platform for Privacy Preferences Project (P3P) provides a framework for informed online interactions. The goal of P3P is to enable users to exercise preferences over Web sites' privacy practices. P3P applications will allow users to be informed about Web site practices, delegate decisions to their computer agent when they wish, and tailor relationships with specific sites. At a high level, P3P can be viewed simply as a protocol for exchanging structured data. An extension mechanism of HTTP1.1 is used to transport information (proposals and data elements) between a client and service. At a more detailed level, P3P is a specification of syntax and semantics for describing information practices and data elements. The specification uses XML and RDF to capture the syntax, structure, and semantics of the information."
November 09, 1998. Further information is available concerning QL'98 - The Query Languages Workshop, announced by the W3C Technology and Society Domain in October. The Query Languages Workshop will be held December 3-4, 1998, in Boston. The scope of this W3C Workshop on Query Languages is "to begin the discussion of query languages for the Web (with particular emphasis on querying XML and RDF), of the needed requirements for such query language(s) , and of proposing solutions. We expect that the workshop will clarify the shared and individual needs of different W3C groups like XML, RDF, P3P, DOM." A list of workshop presentation titles is now available, as well as a FAQ document and a list of Participants. See also the main conference entry. See other references in "XML and Query Languages."
November 09, 1998. Norman Walsh has announced the availability of the Modular DocBook Stylesheets, version 1.23. These DSSSL stylesheets may be used with James Clark's Jade and the DocBook DTD to process DocBook documents. The announcement contains references to the ChangeLogs since the last non-beta version.
November 09, 1998. Uche Ogbuji posted an announcement for 4DOM Version 0.6.0. 4DOM is a CORBA-aware implementation of the W3C's Document Object Model written in Python. "4DOM is a close implementation of the DOM, including DOM Core level 1, DOM HTML level 1, and a few utility and helper components. 4DOM was designed from the start to work in a CORBA environment. Currently, the open-source Python orb, Fnorb is supported, indeed required. 4DOM is designed to allow developers rapidly design applications that read, write or manipulate HTML and XML." Compare also the ongoing work by members of the Python XML SIG to create DOM implementations in Python, including the PyDOM package from Stefane Fermigier.
November 06, 1998. An updated version of the WebCGM Profile has been submitted to the W3C by The Boeing Company, the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils (CCLRC), Inso Corporation, Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), and Xerox Corporation. Principal authors of the document are David Cruikshank (The Boeing Company), John Gebhardt (Intercap Graphics Systems), Lofton Henderson (Inso Corporation), and Roy Platon (CCLRC). Development of Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM - ISO 8632:1992) is supported by the CGM Open Consortium, a non-profit international consortium 'dedicated to accelerating the further adoption, application, and implementation of the Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM), the international standard for open interchange of structured graphical objects and their associated attributes.' An effort toward "SGML/CGM Harmonization" is being promoted by OASIS. With this publication of the W3C NOTE, the 'WebCGM profile' specification enters its 'last call' for review comments, which will end on November 23, 1998.

The document abstract: "CGM (Computer Graphics Metafile) has been an ISO standard for vector and composite vector/raster picture definition since 1987. It has been a registered MIME type since 1995. CGM has a significant following in technical illustration, electronic documentation, geophysical data visualization, amongst other application areas. WebCGM is a profile for the effective application of CGM in Web electronic documents. WebCGM has been a joint effort of the CGM Open Consortium, of which a number of we submitters are active members and contributors, in collaboration with W3C staff under the W3C-LA project. It represents an important interoperability agreement amongst major users and implementors of CGM, and thereby unifies current diverse approaches to CGM utilization in Web document applications. WebCGM's clear and unambiguous conformance requirements will enhance interoperability of implementations, and it should be possible to leverage existing CGM validation tools, test suites, and the product certification testing services for application to WebCGM. While WebCGM is a binary file format and is not "stylable", nevertheless WebCGM follows published W3C requirements for a scalable graphics format where such are applicable. The design criteria for the graphical content of WebCGM aimed at a balance between graphical expressive power on the one hand, and simplicity and implementability on the other. A small but powerful set of metadata elements is standardized in WebCGM, to support the functionalities of: hyperlinking and document navigation; picture structuring and layering; and, search and query on WebCGM picture content." See also the W3C submission request, and the W3C Staff Comment on the WebCGM Submission from Chris Lilley.
November 06, 1998. On November 4, 1998, Microsoft announced the availability of a beta version of Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 for technical evaluation. This release of the Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 beta was "designed to give IT managers and PC enthusiasts an opportunity to evaluate the technology, provide feedback and become familiar with the technologies early in the development process." This release is said to have "improved support for key standards, including the Document Object Model (DOM), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and Extensible Markup Language (XML). The beta version 'supports direct browsing of XML source files using XSL or cascading style sheets, just as users can browse HTML documents. For example, users can add XML files to their Favorites folder and can inspect XML files in the History list. XML file authors specify the CSS or XSL style sheet to be used for displaying the XML file by using the notation described in the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) note. The beta version supports the transformation part of the W3C XSL specification, and may be used for direct browsing of XML files and from the XML DOM. The IE 5 beta also includes an "XML Schema and Data Types Preview" - 'this release of XML Schema with data type support as a technology preview that may be useful for developers interested in building prototypes and gaining experience with schema and rich data types. XML Schema as implemented in this technology preview can be thought of as the subset of the XML-Data submission that corresponds to the feature set proposed for Document Content Description (DCD). Unlike the unique document type definition (DTD) syntax, XML Schema allows you to define the rules governing the relations between elements and attributes using a standard XML instance syntax, which can be parsed and managed using XML applications. . . XML Schema also adds support for namespaces, data types, and such useful features as range constraints. Namespace support is integrated into native browsing of XML files, XSL, and the XML DOM programming interfaces." See the dedicated page 'Microsoft Support for XML' or the Microsoft Web site.
November 04, 1998. The W3C Scalable Vector Graphics Working Group has published a working draft defining "Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Requirements." References: WD-SVGReq-19981029, W3C Working Draft, 29 Oct 1998. From the document introduction: "The W3C has chartered a Scalable Vector Graphics working group to produce a specification for an SVG format, written as a modular XML tagset and usable as an XML namespace, which can be widely implemented in browsers and authoring tools and which is suitable for widespread adoption by the content authoring community as a replacement for many current uses of raster graphics. This will mean that the graphics in Web documents will be smaller, faster, more interactive, and be displayable on a wider range of device resolutions from small mobile devices through office computer monitors to high resolution printers. This will be a significant advance in Web functionality. Interoperability, both in multiple browsers across multiple platforms and in multiple authoring tools (both read and write), is a prime focus. The SVG working group decided to solicit public review and feedback at the earliest possible point to best ensure that SVG meets the Web community's needs for a vector graphics language specification. This document reflects early SVG working group discussions on what SVG should and should not be. The working group has not reached consensus on all topics, so the document below sometimes describes particular features as open issues that are still under discussion. This document lists both SVG Design Goals and SVG Detailed Requirements. The SVG Design Goals describe the high-level objectives which SVG should attempt to achieve. These design goals should also act as the criteria by which proposed features are judged. The SVG Detailed Requirements contains the actual list of proposed features."
November 04, 1998. A 'Last Call' for review has been issued on the W3C initial stylesheet linking draft, edited by James Clark. See: Associating stylesheets with XML documents Version 1.0 (WD-xml-stylesheet-19981001). This WD specifies a mechanism that "allows a stylesheet to be associated with an XML document by including one or more XML processing instructions with a target of xml-stylesheet in the document's prolog." A cover letter from the W3C Syntax WG co-chair Joel Nava provides some rationale for the specific PI syntax that is being proposed by the XML Syntax Working Group in this initial specification (for example, the PI vis-à-vis an element or attribute based solution 'somewhere along the lines of XLink or the XML Namespace mechanism [which] would be more appropriate. . .').
November 04, 1998. Richard James Anderson posted an announcement for an 'early version' of his ActiveX SAX control. "The control still has a long way to go, but it can parse most files that do not contain references to external entities. It suports a number of interfaces to provide an application or other component with a stream of XML events, based upon SAX (The Simple API for XML). The control is built upon a XML/SAX parser written in C++ by Richard Anderson. [The XML parser itself has no dependancies to any external dlls or controls, so it can be used on any 32 bit version of Windows without the need for IE4 to be installed.] The ActiveX SAX control download includes a sample VB6 app for reading and processing XML files. It just loads the XML file into a tree control, and shows the SAX events in a list control. Of course, the control can be used to anything that supports COM automation controllers."
November 04, 1998. Work in progress: "Perl XML FAQ," by Jonathan Eisenzopf. The FAQ document covers: where to find an XML parser written in Perl, mailing lists for XML and Perl, the DOM module for Perl, XML related modules that are available or in development. . . (etc.). See also: "XML and Perl."
November 03, 1998. Ralph E. Ferris of Fujitsu Software Corporation has announced that HyBrick V0.8 with XLink/XPointer is Now Available for download. HyBrick Version 0.8 features: 1) HyBrick includes a DSSSL renderer and XLink/XPointer engine running on top of SP and Jade; 2) XLink/XPointer are supported on the local file system; 3) XPointer is implemented as a subset of the HyTime property set; 4) Link traversal can use either 'New' or 'Replace' to display a new page. This latest version of the Fujitsu HyBrick browser with support for XLink/XPointer is now available from Fujitsu's Web site, http://www.fujitsu.co.jp/hypertext/free/HyBrick/download2.html [click on 'hb08.exe']. Note: 'HyBrick V.08 is now also available from FSC's Web site. This version has an English-language menu, but is otherwise identical to the version on Fujitsu's Web site in Japan. I have also added some files to the distribution to show more of HyBrick's formatting capabilities.' See also: "HyBrick - SGML/XML Browser."
November 03, 1998. Simon St.Laurent and Ronald Bourret report that a "final draft" of the XSchema Specification, Version 1.0 is now available (November 1, 1998). Public comments on the draft should be posted to the XML-DEV mailing list. General information on the XSchema project is available at http://purl.oclc.org/NET/xschema. 'The XSchema project is a cooperative effort, based on the xml-dev mailing list, [designed to] provide a means for XML developers to describe their XML document structures using XML document syntax.' See also the database entry, XSchema.
November 03, 1998. G. Ken Holman (Crane Softwrights Ltd.) posted a description of a 'literate DSSSLstylesheet environment' package that has been using for a while to write a DSSSL script and its associated documentation in a single file. This tool is available for download. Description: "CSLDSSSL is an Annotatable DSSSL Stylesheet document model, where the annotations and documentation are captured in rich element structure, interspersed with the actual DSSSL code recognized by the DSSSL engine in the architectural instance of the stylesheet. The environment produces both HTML and printed documentation of the rich markup. The Annotatable DSSSL Stylesheet document model CSLDSSSL.DTD is rich with element content that contains parts, sub-parts, cross-references, and other constructs in addition to raw DSSSL code. The supporting documentation DSSSL stylesheet CSLDSSSL.SGM renders the rich embedded markup into documentation in three formats: print semantics, HTML markup, and distilled DSSSL code." See also the online documentation.
November 03, 1998. Philippe Le Hégaret posted an announcement for the release of KOML version 1.1. KOML (Koala Object Markup Language) is "an XML application to serialize Java Objects in an XML document. This new version includes bug fix and a minor change in the language. It is backward compatible with the version 1.0."
November 03, 1998. A paper outlining potential areas of cooperation between the WAP Forum [Wireless Application Protocol] and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is presented in a W3C NOTE, "WAP Forum - W3C Cooperation White Paper." References: NOTE-WAP-19981030, W3C Note 30 October 1998. The NOTE editors are Johan Hjelm (W3C / Ericsson), Bruce Martin (WAP Forum / Unwired Planet), and Peter King (WAP Forum / Unwired Planet). "The WAP Forum is dedicated to enabling advanced services and applications on mobile wireless devices, such as cellular telephones. The W3C is dedicated to leading and advancing the development of the World Wide Web. This document describes the problem area of mobile access to information on the web, which is common to the two groups. Direct overlaps in future development occur in the areas of intelligent proxies and protocol design; of XML applications; and in content adaption, e.g through the use of vector graphics and style sheets. Instead of developing diverging sets of solutions, it is the


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