XML stands for Extensible Markup Language. It is asimple, very flexible text format derived from SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) and originally designed to meet the challenges of large-scale electronic publishing and used both to encode documents and serialize data. XML is is also playing an increasingly important role in the exchange of a wide variety of data on the Web and elsewhere. There are two levels of correctness of an XML document:

1. Well-formed. A well-formed document conforms to all of XML’s syntax rules. For example, if a start-tag appears without a corresponding end-tag, it is not well-formed. A document that is not well-formed is not considered to be XML
2. Valid. A valid document additionally conforms to some semantic rules. For example, if a document contains an undefined element, then it is not valid.

XML is not alone, there are plenty of technologies, possibilities… around it, easier and more interesting ways of working with data, and, in short, an advance while working on information, which is, in fact, the aim of IT. XML is not a language, it is several, it is not a syntax, but several and it is not a new way of working but a more refined one that will allow the previous ones to communicate between them because data are no longer meaningless.

It is a fact that most of web pages that deal with news are based upon XML. The most common thing is the information to be stored in database, then turn it into XML and then transform it so as to serve it to the custom.

 

Sources:

• http://xml.awardspace.com/index.html
• http://www.desarrolloweb.com/articulos/449.php
• http://www.w3.org/XML/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML