The fact that you're reading this column tells me that you're at least mildly interested in XML data binding. Just a short year ago, that would have led me to define what data binding is, go into the concepts involved, and generally be boring for several pages worth of article text. However, it isn't a year ago -- it's 2004, and data binding seems to have sunk into the consciousness of almost every XML and Java? developer working in the industry today.
XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is not a programming language. Like HTML (and sharing a common parentage - but that's another story), XML is a means of 'marking up' the content of a document using elements (sometimes referred to as tags) to mark the beginning and end of sections of information.
In my Thinking XML column, I frequently focus on how various industries are working toward semantic transparency, which is the shared meaning of at least the framework of what is communicated in an XML document. Either the industries do so by creating complete document formats along with the semantics of all the elements, attributes, and content, or they define terms and concepts discretely and individually, independently of the documents in which they would appear. I call these approaches top-down and bottom-up, respectively, and very active communities provide useful material on each.
Because other articles in this issue of the Web Journal describe the motivations for XML and some of its goals, this article is intended to serve as a slightly more technical introduction to XML and as an overview of the specification. Throughout this document you will find references of the form [Section 1]; these are references to the XML language specification included in this issue. If you are interested in more technical detail about a particular topic, please consult the specification.
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