This page is about the most recent technology to code web pages in markup called eXtensible Markup Language.
The current version of XML was finalized in 1999, which was based on the previous SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) in 1986. SGML was based on IBM's GML (Generalized Markup Language) from 1969.
I am currently in the process of learning XML 1.0 and am marking up all or most of my current websites to be XML compatible. For example, I'm now using CSS 2.1 Stylesheets and XHTML 1.0 Transitional markup.
My first functional XML document now works, using CSS as the style language.
I'm finding XSLT as being too difficult for now. Maybe what's needed are some better XML tools, such as a GUI-based XSLT editor for output to XHTML, together with a working FOP for creating PDFs and paper documents.
The file firstdocument.xml and mystyle.css are what's necessary to view. I've also created a "database-mode" XML doucment listing the FM radio stations that broadcast to the metropolitan Winnipeg area.
I've tried out a few XML and CSS editors for Windows. My current favourite GUI-based XML editor for Windoze is Altova's Authentic 2004.
There is a program for the Linux KDE desktop environment called Quanta Plus, which is available on the Sourceforge.net project site.
Normally, if you want to code a webpage, you should reference one of the HTML DTDs that serve as a reference point for one of the versions of HTML (2.0,3.2, 4.0, 4.01, etc...). In XML, which is based on SGML, you probably need to use a small fraction of the whole XML markup standard.
The one that currently fits the bill for this is DocBook 4.x. Be sure you use the Website part of DocBook. The DocBook templates in XMLSpy 5.0 include one for Article and another for Book. For now these are the ones that you need to create a "well-formed" (valid) XML web page.
Norman Walsh and Leonard Muellner have written an O'Reilly book, DocBook: The Definitive Guide, on how to use DocBook DTD. They've made it freely available (under the GNU license) on the Net for reading.
If DocBook seems too overwhelming at first, try the DocBook FAQ put together by Dave Pawson in the UK.
SourceForge.net's DocBook Open Repository, where you can download a copy of the DocBook Website DTD has many DocBook related resource like Schemas, XSLT stylesheets, and more.
You should also upload the file(s) catalog.xml so that the server keeps the DocTypes rather than having the browser parser do this at the expense of CPU resources.
Since WordPerfect 6.x you can create SGML DocBook documents.
WordPefect 8 and above has DocBook 3 XML.
WordPerfect 11 has a Publish to XML feature.
WordPerfect 12, is due to be released April 2004. I expect it to have the much more current DocBook 4.x DTD, but I'm not counting on it in the near future.
I've been learning how to do tables using the CALS Table Model in HTML, and find I'm ready to learn how to do this in SGML DocBook using WordPerfect 12. After tinkering with it a bit, I found that I had to reload the file again, and it seems to work and automatically has a 1 pixel black border around the table. I need to tinker some more before offering a definitive guide to SGML DocBook Tables in WordPerfect. But I do intend on doing so.
There is another SGML DTD that pre-dates DocBook called TEI P4. It was created by ? in 1987.
The TEI Consortium was established in 2000. They have updated their DTD for the XML 1.0 specification.
IBM was one of the first organizations to see the need for a markup language. In 1967 Mr. Goldfarb, a lawyer who was hired on at IBM, developed the first common (non-proprietary) markup language for documents.
Some links that relate to GML:
MiniGML by Roman Koch.Back to Jim's Jaworski's Website