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

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Copyright © 2010 Silmaril Consultants, version 5.00 (9 January 2011)
Index to questions in this section
  1. Where's the spec?
  2. I'm trying to understand the XML Spec: why does it have such difficult terminology?
  3. What are these terms DTDless, valid, and well-formed?
  4. Which should I use in my DTD/Schema, attributes or elements?
  5. What has changed between SGML and XML?
  6. Can I use JavaScript, ActiveX, etc in XML files?
  7. Can I use Java to create or manage XML files?
  1. How do I get XML into or out of my database?
  2. What's a namespace?
  3. What XML software is available?
  4. What is my information? DATA or DOCUMENT?
  5. Do I have to change any of my server software to work with XML?
  6. Can I still use server-side inclusions?
  7. Can I (and my authors) still use client-side inclusions?
  8. I have to do an overview of XML for my manager/client/investor/advisor. What should I mention?
  1. Is there a conformance test suite for XML processors?
  2. I've already got SGML DTDs: how do I convert them for use with XML?
  3. How do I include one DTD (or fragment) in another?
  4. How can I include a conditional statement in my XML?
  5. What's the story on XML and EDI?

1. Where's the spec?

Right here: Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Bray et al, 4 February 2004) (http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml). Includes the EBNF, and all the normative material. There are also versions in Japanese; Spanish; Korean; a Java-ised annotated version, and Bob DuCharme's book, XML: The Annotated Specification.

Eve Maler maintains the DTD used for the spec itself; the DTD is also to encode several other W3C specifications, such as XLink, XPointer, DOM, XML Schema, etc. There is documentation available for the DTD. Note that the XML spec needs to use a special one-off version of the DTD, since the real original DTD used for it has long since been lost.