XML implementation

[Peter Murray-Rust]

At 10:05 18/06/98 -0500, Monica khurana wrote:
>I am presently working on a project in which I intend to use XML. I am 
>looking for resources more to do with the implementation.
>I have an idea about DTD's and XML page creation.
>I am more interested in terms of the implementation of XML pages using a 
>java applet on IE4. Could somebody explain the working of the same or lead 
>me to some resource where I can get this information. I am still a little 
>confused about how XML pages are implemented- not from the code point of 
>view but more from the relationship of XML pages, java parser and getting 
>them up on the net.

Hi Monica, welcome.

I suspect a lot of people have similar questions and there is no one
answer. I sometimes use the terms 'documents' or 'instances' rather than
'pages', partly because XML is far more powerful than HTML. For example you
can use XML to represent programmable mathematics. a molecule, metadata,
e-commerce data, or the structure of a program (and there are many other
applications which don't map onto HTML.).

If - as I suspect - your pages are mainly text, you will need to consider
how you want them  processed when they reach the client. The most common
process will be to apply a stylesheet to the document so as to render it on
the screen and/or print. If you want generic functionality of this sort, it
will shortly arrive in major browsers and many other tools - you would only
use Java yourself if you had a burning desire or need to write a browser.
(I had and I have, but that's the exception :-). If, however, your pages
are 'interactive' or require further processing you are going to have to
write some Java. In which case JUMBO2 is a useful core, as is SAXON. 

To create the documents you can find Henry Thompson's XED editor (unless
you create yours from a program). To server them, you simply mount them
with a MIME type of text/xml or application/xml. [This is not *quite*
ratified, I think, but it's coming]. When the XML document reaches the
client, it will either be XML-aware, or will fire a helper that is.

	HTH

	P.
 
Peter Murray-Rust, Director Virtual School of Molecular Sciences, domestic
net connection
VSMS http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/vsms, Virtual Hyperglossary
http://www.venus.co.uk/vhg

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