Internet & Intranets: XML, DOM, XSL, RDF and related technologies
Intro
"XML, the Extensible Markup Language, is a universal syntax for describing and structuring data independent from the application logic.
XML can be used to define unlimited languages for specific industries and applications. ...
XML promises to simplify and lower the cost of data interchange and publishing in a Web environment.
XML is a text-based syntax that is readable by both computer and humans.
XML offers data portability and reusability across different platforms and devices.
It is also flexible and extensible, allowing new tags to be added without breaking an existing document structure.
Based on Unicode, XML provides global language support." (Sun Microsystems)
"The Document Object Model (DOM) 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." (W3C)
"Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) is a language for expressing stylesheets.
It consists of two parts: a language for transforming XML documents, and 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." (W3C)
"RDF - the Resource Description Framework - is a framework for metadata;
it provides interoperability between applications that exchange machine-understandable information on the Web.
RDF emphasizes facilities to enable automated processing of Web resources.
RDF metadata can be used in a variety of application areas. ...
In general, RDF provides the basis for generic tools for authoring, manipulating, and searching machine understandable data on the Web
thereby promoting the transformation of the Web into a machine-processable repository of information." (W3C)