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Last modified: June 25, 2005
Extensible Markup Language (XML)

Contents

[Indexed Search]

XML: Overview

[CR: 20000706] [Table of Contents]

Several introductory and tutorial articles on the Extensible Markup Language (XML) are referenced in the shorter XML Introduction document. Most articles are accessible online.

"The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is the universal format for structured documents and data on the Web." -- W3C XML Web site, 2000-07-06.

The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is descriptively identified in the XML 1.0 W3C Recommendation as "an extremely simple dialect [or 'subset'] of SGML" the goal of which "is to enable generic SGML to be served, received, and processed on the Web in the way that is now possible with HTML," for which reason "XML has been designed for ease of implementation, and for interoperability with both SGML and HTML." Note that the "HTML" referenced in the preceding sentence (bis) means HTML 4.0 and 3.2 which were in common use as of 10-February-1998, when the XML 1.0 specification was published as a W3C Recommendation. The next version of 'HTML' is expected to be reformulated as an XML application, so that it will be based upon XML rather than upon SGML. As of December 1998, 'Voyager' was the W3C code name for HTML reformulated as an application of XML.

XML was initially "developed by a W3C Generic SGML Editorial Review Board formed under the auspices of the W3 Consortium in 1996 and chaired by Jon Bosak of Sun Microsystems, with the very active participation of a Generic SGML Working Group also organized by the W3C." An XML WG (Working Group) under W3C served initially as an editorial board, which received input from an XML Special Interest Group.

As of late 1998, the XML design effort was re-chartered under the direction of an XML Coordination Group and XML Plenary Interest Group to be carried out in five new XML working groups: XML Schema Working Group, XML Fragment Working Group, XML Linking Working Group (XLink and XPointer), XML Information Set Working Group, and XML Syntax Working Group. These working groups were designed to have close liaison relationships with the W3C's Extensible Style[sheet] Language (XSL) Working Group and Document Object Model (DOM) Working Group.

"Extensible Markup Language, abbreviated XML, describes a class of data objects called XML documents and partially describes the behavior of computer programs which process them. XML is an application profile or restricted form of SGML, the Standard Generalized Markup Language. By construction, XML documents are conforming SGML documents."

"XML is primarily intended to meet the requirements of large-scale Web content providers for industry-specific markup, vendor-neutral data exchange, media-independent publishing, one-on-one marketing, workflow management in collaborative authoring environments, and the processing of Web documents by intelligent clients. It is also expected to find use in certain metadata applications. XML is fully internationalized for both European and Asian languages, with all conforming processors required to support the Unicode character set in both its UTF-8 and UTF-16 encodings. The language is designed for the quickest possible client-side processing consistent with its primary purpose as an electronic publishing and data interchange format." [971208 W3C press release]

"XML documents are made up of storage units called entities, which contain either parsed or unparsed data. Parsed data is made up of characters, some of which form the character data in the document, and some of which form markup. Markup encodes a description of the document's storage layout and logical structure. XML provides a mechanism to impose constraints on the storage layout and logical structure. A software module called an XML processor is used to read XML documents and provide access to their content and structure. It is assumed that an XML processor is doing its work on behalf of another module, called the application. This specification describes the required behavior of an XML processor in terms of how it must read XML data and the information it must provide to the application." [adapted from the Proposal]

Valid XML documents are designed to be valid SGML documents, but XML documents have additional restrictions. The W3C XML WG has published a technical NOTE providing a "detailed comparison of the additional restrictions that XML places on documents beyond those of SGML": see http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-sgml-xml for the details. The NOTE also includes an SGML declaration which describes the constraints of XML applicable to an SGML parser. [local archive copy]

[This paragraph is superseded by the technical NOTE 'NOTE-sgml-xml' referenced immediately above.] Features in SGML but not in XML include [as of November 5, 1996]: "Tag omission; The CONCUR, LINK, DATATAG, and SHORTREF features; The "&" connector in content models; Inclusions and exclusions in content models; CURRENT, CONREF, NAME, NAMES, NUMBER, NUMBERS, NUTOKEN, and NUTOKENS declarations for attributes; The NET construct; Abstract syntax; Capacities and quantities; Comments appearing within other markup declarations; Public Identifiers; Omission of quotes on attribute values." For a more recent/complete comparison of features, see the relevant section in the language specification, or "What else has changed between SGML and XML?" in the FAQ, maintained by Peter Flynn.

As of December 1997, the current and former members of the XML WG are: "Jon Bosak, Sun (Chair); James Clark (Technical Lead); Tim Bray, Textuality and Netscape (XML Co-editor); Jean Paoli, Microsoft (XML Co-editor); C. M. Sperberg-McQueen, U. of Ill. (XML Co-editor); Dan Connolly, W3C; Steve DeRose, INSO; Dave Hollander, HP; Eliot Kimber, Highland; Eve Maler, ArborText; Tom Magliery, NCSA; Murray Maloney, Muzmo and Grif; Makoto Murata, Fuji Xerox Information Systems; Joel Nava, Adobe; Peter Sharpe, SoftQuad; John Tigue, DataChannel."

Historically: The W3C SGML Editorial Review Board, as of November 5, 1996, had the following members: Jon Bosak, Sun (jon.bosak@sun.com), chair; Tim Bray, Textuality (tbray@textuality.com), editor; James Clark (jjc@jclark.com), technical lead; Dan Connolly (connolly@w3.org), W3C contact; Steve DeRose, EBT (sjd@ebt.com), editor; Dave Hollander, HP (dmh@hpsgml.fc.hp.com); Eliot Kimber, Passage Systems (kimber@passage.com); Tom Magliery, NCSA (mag@ncsa.uiuc.edu); Eve Maler, ArborText (elm@arbortext.com); Jean Paoli, Microsoft (jeanpa@microsoft.com); Peter Sharpe, SoftQuad (peter@sqwest.bc.ca); C. Michael Sperberg-McQueen, U. of Ill. at Chicago (cmsmcq@uic.edu), editor.

W3C XML Adjunct Specifications

[CR: 20000705] [Table of Contents]

The W3C Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 Specification is the principal document governing the XML standard. Several other W3C specifications are also critical to the understanding and implementation of XML as it is currently used. These specifications are being developed by various working groups, sometimes as part of activity outside the sphere of the XML Activity. Some examples:

XML/XLink/XSL Specifications: Reference Documents

[CR: 20011213] [Table of Contents]

Extensible Markup Language (XML) [Formerly: 'xml-lang']

Extensible Markup Language as a W3C Recommendation

[February 10, 1998] Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0. W3C Recommendation 10-February-1998. Editors: Tim Bray (Textuality and Netscape), Jean Paoli (Microsoft), and C. M. Sperberg-McQueen (University of Illinois at Chicago). Reference: REC-xml-19980210.

[October 06, 2000] Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Second Edition). W3C Recommendation 6-October-2000. Edited by Tim Bray (Textuality and Netscape), Jean Paoli (Microsoft), C. M. Sperberg-McQueen (University of Illinois at Chicago and Text Encoding Initiative), and Eve Maler (Sun Microsystems, Inc. - Second Edition). Reference: http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-xml-20001006.

[December 13, 2001] XML 1.1. W3C Working Draft 13-December-2001. Edited by John Cowan (Reuters). Version URL reference: http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-xml11-20011213/. Latest Version URL: http://www.w3.org/TR/xml11/.

Abstract: "The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a subset of SGML that is completely described in this document. Its goal is to enable generic SGML to be served, received, and processed on the Web in the way that is now possible with HTML. XML has been designed for ease of implementation and for interoperability with both SGML and HTML."

Sources: [see W3C for additional translations]

HTML Formathttp://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-xml-19980210.html[archive copy]
XML Formathttp://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-xml-19980210.xml[archive copy]
PDF Formathttp://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-xml-19980210.pdf[archive copy]
Postscript Formathttp://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-xml-19980210.ps[archive copy]
Latest versionhttp://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml
In ChineseSource from lightning.prohosting.com[archive copy]
In FrenchSource from babel.alis.com[archive copy]
In FrenchIn preparation[M. Goossens]
In GermanSource from www.mintert.com[archive copy]
In ItalianSource from IAT-CNR[archive copy]
In JapaneseSource from fxis.co.jp[archive copy]
In KoreanSource from trio.co.kr[archive copy]
In RomanianSource from agora.ro[archive copy]
In SpanishSource from SGML-ESP[archive copy]
In SpanishSource from Epsilon Eridani
In SwedishSource from XML.SE[archive copy]
XML Spec DTD"-//W3C//DTD Specification V2.0//EN"[archive copy]  [*]
Design ReportW3C XML Specification DTD (Report)[archive copy, v20]
Errata [1]XML 1.0 Specification Errata[archive copy 2000-04-09]
Second EditionXML 1.0 Second Edition, Recommendation[cache]
Second Edition [RV]Second Edition Review Version[cache]

Other Links:

  • [October 09, 2000] XML 1.0 Second Edition as W3C Recommendation. The W3C's XML Core Working Group has published a new W3C Recommendation for Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Second Edition). Reference: W3C Recommendation 6-October-2000, edited by Tim Bray, Jean Paoli, C. M. Sperberg-McQueen, and Eve Maler. This REC specification follows the earlier publication of a public Review Version. "This second edition is not a new version of XML (first published 10-February-1998); it merely incorporates the changes dictated by the first-edition errata as a convenience to readers. The errata list for this second edition is available at http://www.w3.org/XML/xml-V10-2e-errata. The document abstract, unchanged from the 1998 first edition, appears to validate the hermeneutical theory that a text's intent escapes from the author and passes immediately into the control of the community upon utterance: "The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a subset of SGML that is completely described in this document. Its goal is to enable generic SGML to be served, received, and processed on the Web in the way that is now possible with HTML. XML has been designed for ease of implementation and for interoperability with both SGML and HTML." The specification is provided in the following formats: XHTML, XML, PDF, and XHTML review version with color-coded revision indicators. See also the (non-normative) "Production Notes" in Annex I: "This Second Edition was encoded in the XMLspec DTD (which has documentation available). The HTML versions were produced with a combination of the xmlspec.xsl, diffspec.xsl, and REC-xml-2e.xsl XSLT stylesheets. The PDF version was produced with the html2ps facility and a distiller program."
  • [August 15, 2000] Paul Grosso (Co-Chair XML Core WG) announced that the W3C XML Core Working Group has released a draft of the Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 Second Edition for public review: Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Second Edition) Review Version; Reference: W3C Working Draft 14-August-2000. "The second edition is not a new version of XML; it is designed to bring the XML 1.0 Recommendation up to date with the XML 1.0 Specification Errata (first edition)." Reviewers are asked to report errors to the 'xml-editor@w3.org' mailing list, which is publicly archived. Paul writes: "At this time, we are making two versions of the draft Second Edition available for a four week public review, and all interested parties are invited to review the current drafts and submit comments. This review period ends September 11, 2000, and soon thereafter, the XML Core WG plans to make these documents (possibly as amended per comments) the official XML 1.0 Recommendation Second Edition. All these public review documents are linked from the W3C TR page. The 'plain' draft Second Edition is at http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/WD-xml-2e-20000814.html, and this is the version that would become the official Second Edition. We have also produced a 'review copy' which highlights changes between the first edition and this Second Edition, and it is at http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/WD-xml-2e-review-20000814. This may be provided along with the official Second Edition if it is deemed useful and appropriate, but the 'plain' version is the official one. Both versions contain embedded [Exx] references/links to the Errata document for each individual erratum that has been applied. (If we decide to maintain the 'review' version, we may decide to delete the [Exx] references from the 'plain' one.) Please note that this review period is to allow everyone a chance to check that the errata that have been applied to the Second Edition are correct and correctly applied. Reports of further errata or ambiguities in XML 1.0 are welcome, but they will likely be saved to be considered for possible application to a later edition, not added to this Second Edition." [cache]
  • Annotated Version of the XML specification, from Tim Bray. See further description below.
  • Bob DuCharme. XML: The Annotated Specification. The Charles F. Goldfarb Series on Open Information Management. The Definitive XML Series from Charles F. Goldfarb. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR, 1999.
  • [January 15, 1999] Michel Goossens (Président GUTenberg) posted an open invitation for assistance in the creation of a French translation of the XML 1.0 Specification and Peter Flynn's XML FAQ document. Alternately, if any readers are aware of the availability of such a translation already, or of a similar initiative, please communicate with Goossens about it so as to avoid duplication of efforts.
  • Press release: "The World Wide Web Consortium Issues XML 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation. Key Industry Players, Experts Collaborate to Develop Interoperable Data Format for the Web." [local archive copy]
  • Announcement on TEI-L, "XML 1.0 Is Official." From TEI Editor, C. M. Sperberg-McQueen. Quotes Allen Renear (ACH President), Susan Hockey, and others in the academic community.
  • XML 1.0 Fact Sheet; ;[local archive copy]
  • XML 1.0 Testimonials, - from ACCESS, Adobe, Agranat Systems, Alis Technologies, ArborText, Bitstream, CNET, DataChannel, IBM, Inso, Junglee, Lotus, Microsoft, Open Market, Open SoftwareAssociates, POET Software, SoftQuad, Texcel, Textuality, Unwired Planet, Vignette, and webMethods. [local archive copy]
  • "W3C Endorses First XML Standard for Global Use." By Dana Gardner. In InfoWorld Electric. Posted at 11:40 AM PT, February 10, 1998.
  • Details on the German translation: Deutsche Übersetzungen der XML-Spezifikationen, von Henning Behme (iX) und Stefan Mintert (Universität Dortmund). Also available in .ZIP format.


  • On the 'XML Specification DTD' and the corresponding 'Report' (documentation):
    See the separate document.

Extensible Markup Language as a Proposed Recommendation

[December 08 [12], 1997] Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0, issued as a W3C Proposed Recommendation. December 8, 1997. Editors: Tim Bray (Textuality and Netscape), Jean Paoli (Microsoft), and C. M. Sperberg-McQueen (University of Illinois at Chicago). Reference: PR-xml-971208. Version URL: http://www.w3.org/TR/PR-xml-971208. Announced at the SGML/XML '97 Conference in Washington, D.C. See the press release, or a press release, alternate source. XML WG Chair Jon Bosak clarified the WG's new work focus in light of the publication of this PR.

Extensible Markup Language - Other Earlier Working Draft Versions

Extensible Linking Language (XLL/XLink) [Formerly: 'xml-link']

[CR: 19980128] [Table of Contents]

Note: A separate document xll.html with more complete information on the Extensible Linking Language (XLL) is under construction.

Extensible Style Language (XSL) [Formerly: 'xml-style']

[CR: 19980128]

Note: A separate document xsl.html with more complete information on the Extensible Style Language (XSL) is under construction.

XML FAQ Documents: Answers to "Frequently-Asked-Questions"

[CR: 20020709] [Table of Contents]

See now the separate document for references to SGML/XML FAQs. This document cites the earlier versions of the XML FAQ (1.5, 1.4, 1.3, 1.2, 1.1) and early translations into Japanese, Spanish, and Korean.

XML Information Online: Other WWW Sites

[CR: 20001101] [Table of Contents]

XML: Proposed Applications and Industry Initiatives

[CR: 20040102] [Table of Contents]

The XML applications and announced industry initiatives listed below have not been evaluated according to any serious criteria for quality and genuineness. Since the various specifications documents for XML/XLink/XSL are still in some flux, it would often be unfair or difficult to make such a judgment. Obviously, many of these application areas provide exemplary models, having unquestioned integrity and high quality. Some already play a vital role in profitable commercial enterprise. It is also to be expected that some early XML/XLink/XSL applications may be merely demonstrations, toys, proof-of-concept applications; still others might be naive or ill conceived. It may be necessary to regard some of these ideas 'in draft' like some of the specifications documents themselves. The good news is this: Net users are seeing clearly that a fixed tag set (like HTML) is not the solution. . .

Contents Listing for XML Applications and Industry Initiatives

W3C Specifications Documentation aka 'XML Spec DTD'

[CR: 20001005]

[*][SWEB][ODD][19990205] Content is now in a separate document: see "XML Specification DTD." See the XML Spec DTD and documentation.

IEEE Standard DTD

[CR: 20020706]

See now the separate document "IEEE Standard DTD."

Text Encoding Initiative (TEI)

[CR: 19990802]

[June 30, 1999] A 'TEI Lite DTD in XML' was made available from the TEI Web site. See the references for TEI - the XML version in a separate document, and the section 'Academic Applications' for background on the SGML version of the TEI DTD.

Channel Definition Format, CDF (Based on XML)

Channel Definition Format (CDF) is an application of the Extensible Markup Language designed for push technology. The proposal has been submitted to the World Wide Web Consortium.

RDF Rich Site Summary (RSS)

[CR: 19990513]

"My Netscape Network (MNN) is a free Netcenter service that lets you create your own My Netscape channel. Create an RDF Site Summary (RSS) 0.9 file that describes your content." See description and references in a separate document. Note 'OCS' below.

W3C Document Object Model (DOM), Level 1 Specification

[CR: 19990106]

In early January 1999, a W3C Working Draft for the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Specification Version 1.0 (WD-DOM-Level-2-19981228) was released. It "defines the Document Object Model Level 2, a platform- and language-neutral interface that allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content, structure and style of documents. The Document Object Model Level 2 builds on the Document Object Model Level 1. Level 2 adds interfaces for a Cascading Style Sheets object model, an event model, and a query interface, amongst others."

On October 1, 1998, the World Wide Web Consortium published the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 Specification, Version 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation. "The Document Object Model is a platform- and language-neutral interface that will allow programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content, structure and style of documents. The document can be further processed and the results of that processing can be incorporated back into the presented page."

The main database entry for the W3C DOM has been moved to a separate document.

Web Collections using XML

"Web Collections are an application of XML - a meta-data syntax that fits easily within the framework of the World Wide Web. Web Collections are an application of XML, the Extensible Markup Language. In addition, Web Collections can be expressed inside HTML documents or on their own. In addition they are stylistically similar to HTML to enable easy authoring. . . Some of the anticipated applications of Web Collections include Web Maps, HTML Email Threading, PIM functions, scheduling, content labeling, and distributed authoring." ["work in progress"]

  • Web Collections using XML - March 09, 1997. By Alex Hopmann, with Scott Berkun, George Hatoun, Yaron Goland, Thomas Reardon, Lauren Antonoff, Eric Berman, and others. [mirror copy]

Meta Content Framework Using XML

[CR: 19970622]

Netscape Communications announced a new proposed XML application. According to the notice on the Netscape Developer's page: "The Meta Content Framework, or MCF, provides a standard way to describe files or collections of information. A new Netsape document describes how to apply MCF using XML, the Extensible Markup Language."

Links:

XML-Data

[CR: 19980501]

On January 5, 1998, a new (revised) submission on XML-Data was presented to the W3C by Microsoft, ArborText, DataChannel, and Inso. Reference: W3C Note 05 Jan 1998. Authors: Andrew Layman, Edward Jung, Eve Maler, Henry S. Thompson, Jean Paoli, John Tigue, Norbert H. Mikula, and Steve DeRose. According to the introduction, XML-Data "describes an XML vocabulary for schemas, that is, for defining and documenting object classes. It can be used for classes which as strictly syntactic (for example, XML) or those which indicate concepts and relations among concepts (as used in relational databases, KR graphs and RDF). The former are called 'syntactic schemas;' the latter 'conceptual schemas.' The text of this NOTE thus "provides a specification (XML-Data) for describing and exchanging structured and networked data on the Web. Such exchange is facilitated by schemas defining the characteristics of classes of objects. The objects can be syntactic constructs such as are used in XML instances, or may be more abstract such as are found in databases, information models or directed, labeled graphs. This paper describes an XML vocabulary for schemas. One immediate implication of these ideas is a substantive part of the functionalities of XML document types can now be described using the XML instance syntax itself, rather than DTD syntax. We expect XML-Data to be useful for a wide range of applications, such as describing database transfers or remotely-located Web resources."

[Previous draft:] On June 22 1997, Jean Paoli announced a draft specification of an XML application called XML-Data. The specification is documented in a Position Paper from Microsoft, written by Andrew Layman (Microsoft Corporation), Jean Paoli (Microsoft Corporation), Steve De Rose (Inso Corporation), and Henry S. Thompson (University of Edinburgh), with contributions from Paul Grosso, Sharon Adler, Anders Berglund, François Chahuneau, and Edward Jung. XML-Data is an application of XML for exchanging structured data and metadata on the Internet. The paper outlines a number of XML-Data design features which are not in the MCF specification. The position paper has been sent to multiple working groups in the W3C currently dealing with XML and meta-data."

Namespaces in XML

[CR: 19981111]

"XML namespaces provide a simple method for qualifying names used in Extensible Markup Language documents by associating them with namespaces identified by URI." A W3C Working Draft "Namespaces in XML" was published on September 16, 1998 (WD-xml-names-19980916).

Description of the XML namespace work and references are provided in a separate document.

Resource Description Framework (RDF)

[CR: 19990216]

The RDF section currently provides information and references for both the Resource Description Framework (RDF) Model and Syntax Specification and the Resource Description Framework (RDF) Schema Specification.

The Australia New Zealand Land Information Council (ANZLIC) - Metadata

[CR: 19980609]

The Environmental Resources Information Network (ERIN) and ANZLIC Working Group on Metadata created a version 1 draft DTD using SGML. The ANZMETA DTD Version 1.1 (19th January 1998) now "has been written to conform to the requirements of XML 1.0." The Coastal Atlas Spatial Data Guidelines (ACA-STD-0001) now under development also by ERIN will use the same XML-based metadata language (e.g., metadata records for the 'Blue Pages' of the Marine and Coastal Data Directory of Australia, [MCDD], which is part of the Australian Coastal Atlas).

XML Metadata Interchange Format (XMI) - Object Management Group (OMG)

[CR: 19990330]

The design of the XML Metadata Interchange Format (XMI) represents an extremely important initiative. It has a goal of unifying XML and related W3C specifications with several object/component modeling standards, as well as with STEP schemas, and more. Particularly, it would "combine the benefits of the web-based XML standard for defining, validating, and sharing document formats on the web with the benefits of the object-oriented Unified Modeling Language (UML), a specification of the Object Management Group (OMG) that provides application developers a common language for specifying, visualizing, constructing, and documenting distributed objects and business models."

Information on XMI is maintained in a separate document.

Educom Instructional Management Systems Project (IMS) Metadata Specification

[CR: 19991012]

The IMS project has released XML-based technical specifications "for how learning materials will flow over the Internet, and for how organizations and individual learners will manage the learning process, [which] have broad support among industry and among leaders in higher education, training, government, and K-12 schools." See "IMS Metadata Specification."

Legal XML Working Group

[CR: 20000927]

See the separate document for Legal XML Working Group.

Web Standards Project (WSP)

[CR: 19980811]

"Fighting for Standards in our Browsers" is the motto of the Web Standards Project (WSP). The Web Standards Project is a collective effort of web developers and end users whose mission is to stop the fragmentation of the web, by persuading the browser makers that common standards are in everyone's best interest." Its goal is to support these core standards of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) "and to encourage browser makers to do the same, thereby ensuring simple, affordable access to Web technologies for all." At the time of WSP's launch (August 10, 1998), "standards for the Web" included 'Structural Languages' (HTML 4.0, XML 1.0), 'Presentation Languages' (CSS, XSL), 'Object Models' (Document Object Model 1 Core HTML/XML), and 'Scripting' (ECMAScript).

HTML Threading - Use of HTML in Email

[CR: 19980128]

On January 27, 1998, the submission of a proposal for "HTML Threading: Conventions for Use of HTML in Email" was made to the W3C by Microsoft Corporation, Lotus Development Corporation, and Qualcomm Corporation. Reference: W3C NOTE 05-Jan-1998. The document editor is Eric Berman (Microsoft), and authors include Pete Resnick (Qualcomm) and Nick Shelness (Lotus). According to the press release, the HTML Threading Proposal "outlines how Extensible Markup Language (XML) can be used to enable data-rich features in HTML email applications." The document abstract clarifies: "As [email] messages go back and forth between participants in a discussion, it is interesting to be able to track properties of the text in the message and properties of the message itself, such as who wrote what or what message a quoted excerpt is originally from. This proposal defines a mechanism for embedding this information within an email message in a manner that degrades gracefully to downlevel mail clients." Appendix B of the NOTE provides some sample mail messages using the HTML Threading.

Open Software Description Format (OSD)

[CR: 19980811]

A joint submission was made to W3C on August 13, 1997 by Marimba Incorporated and Microsoft Corporation for a proposed "Open Software Description Format (OSD)." A document 'NOTE-OSD' written by Arthur van Hoff (Marimba, Incorporated), Hadi Partovi and Tom Thai (Microsoft Corporation) bears this abstract: "This document provides an initial proposal for the Open Software Description (OSD) format. OSD, an application of the eXtensible Markup Language (XML), is a vocabulary used for describing software packages and their dependencies for heterogeneous clients. We expect OSD to be useful in automated software distribution environments." The proposed specification has apparently been endorsed by other companies, including "CyberMedia, InstallShield Software, LANovation, Lotus Development, and Netscape Communications." [from Net.Com article]

And: "The goal of the OSD format is to provide an XML-based vocabulary for describing software packages and their inter-dependencies, whether it is user initiated ("pulled"), or automatic ("pushed"). XML (eXtensible Markup Language) provides a general method of representing structured data in the form of lexical trees. Using this data model, markup tags in the OSD vocabulary are represented as elements of a tree. The three basic relationships between elements are parent-of, child-of, and sibling-of. Distant relationships can be formed from recursive applications of the three basic ones."

XLF (Extensible Log Format) Initiative

[CR: 20010629]

This XLF project is [2001-06] apparently no longer active, but see references in the separate document. See also "Log Markup Language (LOGML)."

WAP Wireless Markup Language Specification (WML)

[CR: 19990324]

The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Wireless Markup Language (WML) is a markup language based on XML, and is intended for use in specifying content and user interface for narrowband devices, including cellular phones and pagers. . . 'A tag-based display language providing navigational support, data input, hyperlinks, text and image presentation, and forms. A browsing language similar to Internet HTML.'

HTTP Distribution and Replication Protocol (DRP)

On August 25, 1997 a submission entitled The HTTP Distribution and Replication Protocol was tendered to the W3C by representatives of Marimba Inc., Netscape Communications Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc., Novell Inc., and At Home Corporation. "The goal of the DRP protocol is to significantly improve the efficiency and reliability of data distribution over HTTP. . . The DRP protocol uses a data structure called an index, which is currently specified using the eXtensible Markup Language (XML). Because the index describes meta data, we anticipate using the Resource Description Format RDF), which was formerly called the Meta Content Framework (MCF), in a future versions of the DRP protocol specification. XML is used in the interim because the RDF standard was not finalized at the time of writing. . . The DRP defines the following new features: (1) Content identifiers, using the existing URI specification, which can uniquely identify a piece of content; (2) An index format which can be used to describe a set of files; (3) A new HTTP header field, Content-ID, which is used to obtain the correct version of a file by specifying a content identifier; (4) A new HTTP header field, Differential-ID, which is used to obtain a differential update for a file."

Links:

Chemical Markup Language (CML)

[CR: 19990724]

The Chemical Markup Language was documented (July 1998) as "an application of XML" and was demonstrated at WWW6 with the Jumbo Java-based browser for XML documents. One of the first interesting XML appliations. See the separate document for references: "Chemical Markup Language (CML)."

Bioinformatic Sequence Markup Language (BSML)

[CR: 20010110]

Information on BSML is provided in a separate document, "Bioinformatic Sequence Markup Language (BSML)."

BIOpolymer Markup Language (BIOML)

[CR: 20020122]

See now the separate document: "BIOpolymer Markup Language (BIOML)."

Virtual Hyperglossary (VHG)

[CR: 20000512]

Description and references for the Virtual Hyperglossary (VHG) project are contained in a separate document "Virtual Hyperglossary (VHG)."

Weather Observation Markup Format (OMF)

[CR: 19980914]

The Weather Observation Markup Format [or: Weather Observation Definition Format] is an application of XML used to encode weather observation reports. The goal of the OMF system is to annotate and augment standard weather reports with derived, computed quantities, and to re-cast the essential information in a markup format that is easier to interpret, yet completely accurate. The data formats typically used in weather reports ("FM 15-X Ext. METAR, FM 16-X Ext. SPECI, FM 51-X Ext. TAF, etc. [constituting] KAWN, WMO feeds . . .") are both incomplete and suboptimal for some processing objectives. According to a summary from one of OMF's designers, the OMF application thus "uses XML for annotating weather observation reports, forecasts and advisories as issued by Weather Meteorological Organization (WMO), the National Weather Center and Air Force Global Weather Center. Currently, METAR/SPECI observational reports, Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts (TAFs) and SIGMET significant weather aircraft advisories are being analyzed and marked up. The incoming source of data are raw bulletins distributed by KAWN/ADWS or National Weather Service'sGateways. The bulletins are parsed, reports are decoded and stored into a database, which can then be queried. The results of the queries are XML-formatted into OMF documents. It is always possible to reconstruct original reports by stripping away the XML markup. The designers are also working on adding other types of reports - Upper Air reports, regional SIGMETs, AIRMETS, Bathythermographs, PIREPS, etc. The markup system is in actual use "to distribute the most current annotated weather observations, forecasts and advisories; the Navy's Joint Metoc Viewer is one application that can ingest OMF documents and display the corresponding data."

Links:

Open Financial Exchange (OFX/OFE)

[CR: 20001014]

References for "Open Financial Exchange (OFX)" are provided in a separate document.

Interactive Financial Exchange (IFX)

[CR: 20000121]

Information on the Interactive Financial Exchange (IFX) is provided in a separate document.

Open Trading Protocol (OTP)

[CR: 19990118]

"The Internet Open Trading Protocol (OTP) provides an interoperable framework for Internet commerce. It is payment system independent and encapsulates payment systems such as SET, Mondex, CyberCash, DigiCash, GeldKarte, etc. OTP is able to handle cases where such merchant roles as the shopping site, the payment handler, the Delivery Handler of goods or services, and the provider of customer support are performed by different parties or by one party. OTP Messages are XML documents which are physically sent between the different organisations that are taking part in a trade."

Information on the [Internet] Open Trading Protocol (OTP) is contained in a separate document.

XML Digital Signature (Signed XML - IETF/W3C)

[CR: 19991012]

The XML-Signature WG is a joint Working Group of the IETF and W3C. References are provided in a separate document.

Digital Receipt Infrastructure Initiative

Information on the Digital Receipt Infrastructure Initiative and the Digital Receipt Consortium is referenced in a separate document.

Digest Values for DOM (DOMHASH)

[CR: 19990419]

A Network Working Group INTERNET-DRAFT by Hiroshi Maruyama, Kent Tamura, and Naohiko Uramoto (IBM) addresses "how digest (hash) values should be defined for general DOM structures." The document is intended to become a Proposed Standard RFC. Compare 'XHASH'.

  • Digest Values for DOM (DOMHASH) draft-hiroshi-dom-hash-00.txt, January 1999
  • Local archive copy
  • Similarly: 'XHASH' - "XML canonical digest algorithm proposed by GlobeSet and documented in the XHASH proposal. This algorithm has been inspired by the DOM-HASH proposal, but operates closer to the surface string of the document. Elements and attributes are subject to formalization in a way quite similar to the one proposed by DOM-HASH - XML delimiters are represented by binary values and entities are replaced by their actual values. However, formalization happens as elements are acquired. Furthermore, this algorithm has been tailored for explicit support of the XML Namespaces and it takes into account some specifics of this specification (e.g., dsig:eval attribute).
  • See also: "Digital Signatures for XML." By Richard D. Brown (GlobeSet, Inc.). January 1999. "A syntax and procedures for the computation and verification of XML digital signatures is specified." [local archive copy]
  • See also (earlier): "Digital Signatures for XML." From the IETF TRADE Working Group. Richard D. Brown, GlobeSet, Inc. November 1998. - "The objective of this document is to propose syntax and procedures for the computation and verification of digital signatures applicable to general XML documents." [local archive