Boston, MA, USA; 3 December 2001--OASIS, the XML interoperability consortium, released RELAX NG 1.0 as a Committee Specification for validating XML-based languages. RELAX NG offers a complementary alternative to the W3C XML Schema Recommendation, providing an option for developers who value ease-of-use and a middle ground for those adopting multiple schema languages. In support of the new specification, the OASIS technical committee also released the RELAX NG tutorial and RELAX NG DTD compatibility.

"The key to RELAX NG's simplicity lies in the fact that it does not have any mechanisms specific to particular XML applications. Instead, RELAX NG concentrates on the syntax of XML documents. This opens RELAX NG to as wide a variety of applications as XML itself," explained James Clark, chair of the OASIS RELAX NG Technical Committee. Clark, who has contributed to a wide body of open source software including Linux and XML, is regarded as one of the most prolific developers in the field of structured information standards.

"RELAX NG is an outstanding example of how convergence can benefit and accelerate the development of standards," said Karl Best, director of technical operations for OASIS. "RELAX NG combines what were once two overlapping specifications--TREX (Tree Regular Expressions for XML) and RELAX (REgular LAnguage description for XML). By bringing these two efforts together, OASIS succeeded in avoiding duplication, confusion and fragmentation. The consolidation resulted in a better use of resources and a faster delivery time for RELAX NG."

Clark agreed, "I am very pleased with how the OASIS standards process has worked. The technical committee has completed the specification in a timely way; it has produced a high-quality specification which substantially improves on the languages that were the basis for RELAX NG (TREX and RELAX) without being more complicated than them."

"Wide adoption of RELAX NG will have a very positive impact on the progress of XML," predicted MURATA Makoto of Japan's Information Technology Research and Standardization Centre (INSTAC), one of the original developers of RELAX. "RELAX NG's simplicity and consistency enable the creation of data binding tools, which significantly ease programming in modern object-oriented languages such as Java and C#. RELAX NG is particularly attractive for those users who want to minimize the learning cost of schema languages while taking advantage of free-and-reliable validators."

Publication of XML 1.0 and RELAX NG as JIS (Japanese Industrial Standards) is under consideration, and INSTAC plans to prepare the draft.

About OASIS
OASIS (www.oasis-open.org) is the XML interoperability consortium, advancing collaboration, convergence and adoption of open specifications for structured information exchange. Members themselves set the OASIS technical agenda, using a lightweight, open process expressly designed to promote industry consensus and unite disparate efforts. OASIS is the home for XML conformance, web services, security, business transactions, electronic publishing, topic maps and other interoperability specifications development.

OASIS and the United Nations jointly sponsor ebXML, a global framework for electronic business data exchange. OASIS operates XML.org, a community clearinghouse for XML application schemas, vocabularies and related documents. OASIS hosts The XML Cover Pages, an online reference collection for interoperable markup language standards.

OASIS has more than 400 corporate and individual members in 100 countries around the world. OASIS sponsors include Accenture, Access360, Adobe Systems, Agital, Altova, Arbortext, Auto-trol, Aventail, Baltimore Technologies, BEA Systems, Bentley Systems, BetweenMarkets, The Boeing Company, Bowstreet, Business Layers, Business Logic Corporation, Chrystal Software, Cincom Systems, Citrix Systems, Cohesia, Commerce One, Critical Path, CrossLogix, Cyclone Commerce, DataChannel, Divine, Documentum, EADS Airbus SA, EDS, election.com, empolis, Engage, Enigma, Epicentric, Excelergy, eXcelon, Extricity, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Identrus, Infoteria, Innodata, Intel, Interwoven, IONA, IPNet Solutions, ITEDO, Ivis Group, Jamcracker, Logistics Management Institute, Macromedia, Mercator, Microsoft, Neocore, Netegrity, Netscape/AOL, NextPage, NII Enterprise Promotion Association, Nimble Technology, NIST, Novell, Oblix, OpenNetwork Technologies, Oracle, Pearson Education, Popkin Software, Reed Elsevier, Republica, Reuters Limited, SAA Consultants, Sabre, SAP, Securant, SeeBeyond, Silverstream, SoftQuad Software, Software AG, Sonic Software, Sterling Commerce, StreamServe, Sun Microsystems, Sybase, Tata Consultancy Services, The Tamalpais Group, Thomas Technology Solutions, Tibco, Unisys, US Defense Information Systems Agency, Verticalnet, Virtual Access Networks, Vitria, webMethods, Whitehill Technologies, Xerox, XML Global and Xyvision Enterprise Solutions.

For more information:
Carol Geyer
Director of Communications
OASIS
carol.geyer@oasis-open.org
+1.978.667.5115 x209