XML.com
XML from the Inside Out
Chimps, the Tower of Babel, and XML
Is XML the Esperanto of computer languages?
It used to be said that what separates humans from other animals was tool use. This was fine, until chimps were observed modifying twigs in order to turn termite mounds into fast-food franchises.
No, what really dramatizes the difference between the human race and the rest of the animal kingdom most vividly is language. Or more specifically, the myriad spoken and written languages that contain the sum total of human culture and knowledge. The truth is, in lieu of adopting a constructed international language like Esperanto, we are all forced to rely on translators when called on to communicate outside our fluent tongues.
It is obvious that a similar Babel-like cacophony of computer languages will not help the internet evolve toward Web 2.0. And this is where XML comes in, because it has a structure that both computers and humans can understand. In fact, it is more a meta-language; a language for describing languages. A file using XML can generate documents in any number of other specific formats, including HTML, PDF, or even Word. In some ways, it is the computer language equivalent of Esperanto.
In 1998, XML.com became the first online journal to focus on XML. While competitors have come and gone, this site has remained firmly at the center of the XML world. Each week it provides feature articles and regular columns by well-respected members of the XML community, as well as conference coverage and online discussions.
Offering an average of 1M pages a month to base of 350,000 unique visitors, XML.com sits at the heart of the XML world.
Editorial Content
In addition to the content areas noted on the left nav-bar, coverage includes articles such as: "Web Analytics;" "Agile Web; ATOM Versus RSS;" "Web 2.0;" "Using Python and XSLT Code to Generate Site Maps;" "Building Web Applications;" "Is AJAX Here to Stay?;" and much more.
Source Code: Kendall Grant Clark is the managing editor of XML.com and does Semantic Web and Web 2.0 research at the University of Maryland. In previous careers, he has been a philosopher of religion, a systematic theologian, a freelance writer, a Python programmer, and a construction worker. He was active in the open source movement when it was called “free software” and founded the Dallas-Fort Worth Linux User Group in 1995. He lives with his girlfriend in a 100-year-old, renovated rowhouse in a historic Washington, D.C. neighborhood and is an avid chef, with a cookbook collection numbering in the hundreds.
“Some things are better done than described ... Here’s a challenge for you: write a short description that tells someone how to tie bows in their shoelaces. Go on, Try it.”—Andrew Hunt and David Thomas
From The Pragmatic Programmer
