The XML FAQ — Frequently-Asked Questions about the Extensible Markup Language

Revision History

Reverse chronological order

5.10, 2013-04-28

Updated links and dates

5.00, 2011-01-09

Removed obsolete information and links, reformatted presentation (thanks to Parker and the PWA for help with the CSS). Moved questions about Java and Javascript from Authors to Developers, and question on running XML to Basics. Renamed IDs appendix to appendices, contrib to contributions, and revhist to revisions so that sectioning can be done by ID rather than number and title. Rewrote search script. Updated events. LATEX transformation also updated and the PDFs reset.

4.58, 2010-04-24

Updated events, removed XML Prague, added Balisage Symposium

4.57, 2010-02-27

Updated events, added interim changes to formatting in preparation for extensive relaunch later in 2010.

4.56, 2007-08-08

Added details and links for HTML5

4.55, 2007-08-01

Updated events for 2007–2008. Updated details of ODF and OOXML. Added section on broken software. Revised handling of failed searches.

4.54, 2006-06-01

Corrected an error in the description of xml-stylesheet. Added link targets to Quick Answers.

4.53, 2006-04-12

Updated details of XML for Safari, and added a curious new enquiry.

4.52, 2006-03-26

Added more keywords and fixed a broken link to the XSL FAQ.

4.51, 2006-02-28

Added explanation of xml:is, xml:space, and xml:lang. Added new question on how to read (open) an XML file you have been sent.

4.5, 2006-02-27

Added more keywords taken from failed searches. Expanded on file URIs, the use of compiled DTDs, self-describing data, the boolean nature of parameter entity switches, how to get HTML features (forms, etc).

4.41, 2006-01-07

Fixed a cross-referencing bug in generated content.

4.4, 2006-01-01

Minor grammatical edits, major changes to the indexing and DC metadata. Added glossary entry on data export to CSV and expanded the description of nodes and the grove. Fixed elusive bug in RSS feed. Added contributor names to search index.

4.39, 2005-12-01

Refined some keywords, changed presentations of some examples, reworded a paragraph on treatment of space, and added details of assigning a Schema to an instance.

4.38, 2005-11-01

Added personal views on patent, copyright, and intellectual property.

4.37, 2005-10-31

Removed ambiguities in question 19 in the ‘Authors’ section, ‘How do I include one XML file in another?’.

4.36, 2005-10-16

Updated dates of events in question 11 in the ‘Basics’ section, ‘Where do I find more information about XML?’.

4.35, 2005-10-08

Fixed some broken links and removed a couple of obsolete ones. Added a note about the BOM.

4.34, 2005-10-01

Split the question on CDATA into two: one for CDATA per se, and one for other ways of handling embedded HTML. Added some more keywords, and revised the questions question 12 in the ‘Basics’ section, ‘Where can I discuss implementation and development of XML?’ and question 13 in the ‘Basics’ section, ‘What is the difference between XML and C or C++ or Java?’. Fixed a minor date bug in the search script.

4.33, 2005-09-12

Added more keywords, and a tip to the the note on note on asp.net.

4.32, 2005-09-10

Added details of xml:id to the the note on note on Attributes.

4.31, 2005-09-09

Added notes on the note on Pipelining and the note on Attributes.

4.3, 2005-09-05

Added the notes culled from failed searches as a question 3 in the ‘Appendices’ section, Glossary; updated some URLs, and added one for XQuery to question 8 in the ‘Developers’ section, the question on databases (thanks, Liam); updated question 3 in the ‘Basics’ section, ‘What is XML for?’, question 2 in the ‘Users’ section, ‘What does an XML document actually look like (inside)?’, question 18 in the ‘Authors’ section, ‘What is parsing and how do I do it in XML?’, and question 20 in the ‘Authors’ section, the question on CDATA Sections. Added a new question 19 in the ‘Developers’ section, question on Conditionals. Tightened up on the indexing for searches, including the removal of enclosing quotes, and added a bunch more metadata.

4.2, 2005-07-01

Added new the tip below, by Murata Makoto RNG mailing list, updated section on question 13 in the ‘Authors’ section, Schemas, added links to the the tip below, XML Declaration for SGML. Retagged personal names for recognition, and ID'd related FAQs. Expanded question on Why XML. Added link to email a page to someone. Added and expanded the tips on ways of getting typeset output, eg LATEX. Added new section on special characters.

4.1, 2005-05-15

Revised structure and new stylesheet for new location at http://xml.silmaril.ie/ . The four main sections remain, but the text is served in separate questions and sections rather than one huge file (the PDF remains as a single document, of course). Removed references to the now-defunct Balise language, added a Tip on editor selection and some notes on WYSIWYG XSL[T] editing.

4.0, 2005-01-01

Went back to DocBook markup using qandaset instead of the QAML that has been used for the last two major releases. Revised text in most sections for clarity in wording, and recast some now-established explanatory material into the past tense. Added new dates for 2005. Added explicit references to the GNU FDL in the legal section. Took the tip on types of XML out into question 11 in the ‘Developers’ section, a new question, and added new questions on question 19 in the ‘Authors’ section, file inclusions and question 20 in the ‘Authors’ section, the use of CDATA Marked Sections.

3.02, 2004-01-12

Added updates for 2004 events

3.01, 2004-01-01

Minor typographic changes

3.0, 2003-01-01

Added information on question 9 in the ‘Users’ section, Office Applications including Corel, Microsoft, and Sun (to keep alphabetical order :-); updated details of question 11 in the ‘Basics’ section, conferences and training; updated question 6 in the ‘Users’ section, browser details; reworded a few ungainly sentences; removed some obsolete URIs (mostly for nice idea sites which died); changed the phrasing of the question 8 in the ‘Developers’ section, question on databases; added details on how to do standalone validation to question 18 in the ‘Authors’ section, the question on parsing (thanks to Bill Rayer); added question on question 15 in the ‘Developers’ section, how to present XML to management (thanks to Tad McClellan); the questions on APIs and the DOM have been subsumed into question 10 in the ‘Developers’ section, the question on software, which has been extensively rewritten; added yet more explanation to the question 7 in the ‘Authors’ section, section on Unicode; 3.01 fixes minor typos; 3.02 adds updated dates for 2004 events.

2.1, 2002-01-01

Added the para below, Humanities mailing list; added more references for the para below, XML and databases; added the Namespaces FAQ; corrected some misunderstandings in the tip below, by Bertilo Wennergren character encodings; changed the editor's email address; added a new question on question 12 in the ‘Authors’ section, root elements; updated the the para below, XLink to W3C Recommendation; updated the question 4 in the ‘Basics’ section, SGML FAQ address; fixed some broken links; added translations into the page German and the page Amharic; minor revisions to some wording. Editing this time was done in epcEdit 1.02 . V2.11 includes new material on question 6 in the ‘Users’ section, expectations and XML browsers, the removal of a mailing list, and a few corrections to typos and links. Thanks to Seán Cannon and Dave&Nikki for debugging the CSS style-sheet.

2.0, 2001-06-01

DTD changed from DocBook SGML to QAML XML; removed query form due to abuse; most questions revised and in some cases rewritten; updated references to new versions of associated standards, recommendations, and working drafts; added pointer to Jon Noring's Unicode test page and NIST's XSLT/XPath test suite; updated Eve Maler's links to the DTD for the spec; added warnings on speling and punk chew asian; added question on namespaces; fixed bug in question on stylesheets; inserted explanation of `document' vs `data' software; added new mailing list on XSL:FO; updated Robin Cover's URI throughout; updated the question on media types for RFC 3023; Extended question of graphics to cover SVG. For 2.01 there were minor typos, some updated links (to recent versions of the standards, and in the section on More Information), and a few wording changes. Thanks to James Cummings for a very thorough proofread. Editing was done using GNU Emacs and psgml-mode.

1.6, 2000-07-01

Added French and Czech translations and a Finnish mailing list, and reorganised the list of translations; updated URIs for newsgroups; clarified reference to Unicode; reworded question on terminology; added more links to the question on conformance testing; corrected error in content model example for mixed content; updates to the question on stylesheets; Minor edits to the question on software; major changes to the question on servers and media types; updated question on XML Schemas; added new question on `executing' XML `programs'; replaced the math example with one less likely to distress the gentle susceptibilities of some readers; added a new question on knowing SGML/HTML before XML.

1.5, 1999-06-01

Added new XML mailing lists in Italian and in French; added details of developer resources in Chinese; two more translations under way (Chinese and Czech); updated links to the question on DTDs; added question on the use of Java to generate and manage XML; added question on when to use attributes and when to use element markup; added question on the use of XML syntax to describe DTD data (schemas); expanded on the explanation of the use of formal language in the spec; added question on the difference between XML and C++; separated information on XML versions of HTML into a separate question.

1.4, 1998-10-01

Added maintainer's email address under Availability; Added note about ISO representation and voting on standards; added Greek translation; updated details of conferences; changed the URI for the new SGML/XML Web Pages; updated details of browsers; corrected reference to the SGML omitted features from XML; updated details of converting HTML to XML; added mention of comp.text.xml; extended the questions on graphics and how to use XML with current browsers; added questions on DOM, conformance testing, DTD includes, SGML DTDs into XML, EDI; (1.41) corrected errors in MIME types, URIs, SDD, and images.

1.3, 1998-06-01

Removed the math plugin (Linux Netscape is broken and refused to elide it); updated list of events (need more); fixed some broken URIs; added Spanish and Korean translations and the Annotated Spec; updated details of MS/NS browser development; clarified the use of FPI vs SysiD; updated link to Feb 10 Rec Spec; added pointers to the SGML Decl for XML; updated references to XLink and XPointer; corrected a reference to ancient Sumerian writing; clarified the need for conversion of HTML DTDs to XML.

1.2, 1998-02-01

Added a Mac icon (thanks to Martin Winter and others); removed Draft from references to the spec; changed revision colours; the RMD is gone: replaced references to it with standalone; updated some broken URIs; [1.21] minor edits to URIs and updates on translation; added XUA to details of MIME types.

1.1, 1997-10-01

No more minimisation parameters in element declarations; parsers must now pass all white-space to the application; everything is now case-sensitive, including all markup; a new proposal for stylesheets: XSL, which combines DSSSL and CSS in an XML format; Java[Script] and and metadata and their use in XML; updated list of software; first XML book is published; new public mailing list XML-L

1.0, 1997-05-01

Added reference to ToC and printed URIs; added disclaimer at A6; combined old A11 with A5 to explain SGML/XML/HTML; clarified explanation of XML not replacing HTML at C1; added new course and conference at (new) A11; clarified B1, C4, C8; added FPI server at C12; removed examples in C13.

0.5, 1997-04-01

Added Multidoc Pro as SGML browser; question on XML math; fixed ambiguity in explanation of NETs; added JUMBO; ERB changes of March 26; more details of linking and tools; adding element declaration minimisation to the forbidden list.

0.4, 1997-02-23

Minor editorial changes

0.3, 1997-02-17

Extensive revision following comments from the group. Changes to markup and organization.

0.2, 1997-02-03

Revised draft. Additional questions and answers.

0.1, 1997-01-31

First draft. Sample questions devised by participants.

0.0, 1996-12-27

First test. Unpublished.