Ground Zero XML Tutorial
XML in relation to Markup Languages
This manual is intended for users with no previous experience in web publishing. We must therefore assume that if you read this, you have no experience with areas such as HTML, Java or Cgi. Not to worry. You don't need to have any experience from HTML to learn XML. The one advantage you have if you know something about HTML already is that most textbooks teach XML in a way that relies heavily on pointing out the differences between the two languages. This is not so strange considering that HTML and XML are "siblings" in the sense that they are derived from the same "parent" language: SGML. This leads us to our angle on this manual. Instead of comparing XML to HTML, we will try to see XML in relation to markup languages in general and how this can be a worthwhile addition to the World Wide Web.
This manual is intended for users with no previous experience in web publishing. We must therefore assume that if you read this, you have no experience with areas such as HTML, Java or Cgi. Not to worry. You don't need to have any experience from HTML to learn XML. The one advantage you have if you know something about HTML already is that most textbooks teach XML in a way that relies heavily on pointing out the differences between the two languages. This is not so strange considering that HTML and XML are "siblings" in the sense that they are derived from the same "parent" language: SGML. This leads us to our angle on this manual. Instead of comparing XML to HTML, we will try to see XML in relation to markup languages in general and how this can be a worthwhile addition to the World Wide Web.
What is Markup ?
This brings us to our first item on the agenda: what exactly is a markup language? In the more general sense of the term, it is by no means a new word. It has been used for quite some time in the print and design world as a means for the author/publisher of a text to highlight sections that have some sort of special structural or contextual meaning. This could be anything from individual words that carry a special meaning or simply an indication of where one chapter ends and another one starts. The tradition of marking up texts goes all the way back to the time when scribes wrote their comments in the margins around the edge of the manuscript, or used different inks to make certain words stand out from the rest of the text.
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