XML is a richer form of HTML. XML and CSS are two technologies that have been agreed upon by W3W to support the exchange of information on the WWW. XML has a lot more tags than XML to account for semantics. It is a mark-up language that has exponentially more functionality and possibilities but requires a fraction of the processing power of other mark up languages like SGML, although they are compatible – SGML as a first attempt that was quickly replaced with XML. XML works through a collection of declarations that define structure, elements and attributes called DOCUMENT TYPE DEFINITION (DTD). (Lecture Materials)
My colleague and I flew through the XML code review exercises. We spotted all of the flaws that were either not valid or not well-formed. It was great fun – like playing a word game. Grammar and syntax aren't just concepts in books anymore, they are actually tools. XML is a language that more robustly serves information search and retrieval. It is a stack of virtual shelves upon which information lives.
An example of XML at work in my field, which is media and marketing, is GETTY IMAGES, one of the leading image banks in the world. See my search for images of Greece, both editorial and creative:
Getty Search - Images from Greece
Getty uses XML to result in images tagged with what the user specifies as the entire system operates according to the rules set by firstly DTDs ultimately defined by TCP/IP.
Issues arise when the metadata are not written into the XML as a user specifies. I entered the word ‘Tsangarada’ into the Getty search and it did not return any images. It is unlikely that they have no images taken from that location because it is notoriously beautiful, but they did not define that metadata to any images in their archive.
Advertising banners on the WWW also operate through XML. Moreover, this blog operates on XML. I actively use XML every day.
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