Beginning XML
Chapter One
What is XML?
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a buzzword you will see everywhere on the Internet, but it's also
a rapidly maturing technology with powerful real-world applications, particularly for the management,
display and organization of data. Together with its many related technologies, which will be covered in
later chapters, it is an essential technology for anyone using markup languages on the Web or internally.
This chapter will introduce you to some of the basics of XML, and begin to show you why it is so
important to learn about it.
We will cover:
The two major categories of computer file types - binary files and text files - and the
advantages and disadvantages of each
The history behind XML, including other markup languages - SGML and HTML
How XML documents are structured as hierarchies of information
A brief introduction t ... read full excerpt from Beginning XML, 2nd Edition ebook