XML

XML, Extensible Markup Language Version 1.0. is a new language for the encoding of structured data on the Web.  XML is a simple, very flexible text format derived from SGML (ISO 8879). XML was originally designed to meet the challenges of large-scale electronic publishing.  Today XML is also playing an increasingly important role in the exchange of a wide variety of data on the Web.

XML was designed to:

• Enable internationalized media-independent electronic publishing
• Allow industries to define platform-independent protocols for the exchange of data, especially the data of electronic commerce
• Deliver information to user agents in a form that allows automatic processing after receipt
• Make it easier to develop software to handle specialized information distributed over the Web
• Make it easy for people to process data using inexpensive software
• Allow people to display information the way they want it, under stylesheet control
• Make it easier to provide metadata -- data about information -- that will help people find information and help information producers and consumers find each other

The initial phase of the XML Activity, started in June 1996, culminated in the W3C XML 1.0 Recommendation, issued February 1998. In the second phase, work proceeded in a number of working groups in parallel, resulting in the January 1999 Recommendation Namespaces in XML and the June 1999 Recommendation for Style Sheet linking.

In September 1999, the third phase of the XML Activity began.  One of the critical working groups today is known as the  XML Core Working Group. The mission of the XML Core Working Group is to elaborate the XML 1.0 Recommendation, maintaining it in response to reported errata and other comments, and providing essential supplementary materials. This working group continues the work of the XML Syntax, XML Fragment, and XML Information Set Working Groups.  It also provides for continuing work on XML Namespaces.  Working Drafts on XML Fragment Interchange, XML Information Set, Canonical XML, XML Inclusions (XInclude), and XML Base  are products of the XML Core Working Group.