Bosak, Jon. The Birth of XML; Available: http://www.java.sun.com/xml/Buswell, Steven. et al. (1999) Mathematical Markup Language (MathML™) 1.01 Specification; Available: http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-MathML/History of MathML; Available: http://www.mathmlcentral.com/Introduction to XML Schema; Available: http://www.w3schools.com/schema/schema_intro.aspXMLVikki HilwayJesse WychulesJosh IveyBrandon WrightRene ReitsmaBA 471March 18, 200601ABSTRACTExtensible Markup Language (XML) is a highly structured computer language that has been designed to power the interactive demands of the World Wide Web. By making use of content-specific tags, DTDs, and a hierarchical format, XML is expanding the capabilities of Web data transfer. XML facilitates more efficient document exchange between computer systems and can be read by a wider variety of devices. This report discusses the background of XML, outlines its structure and major components, and provides examples of real world applications. 2BACKGROUNDXML began as a World Wide Web Consortium initiative led by Sun Microsystems’ Jon Bosak and independent consultant Tim Bray in November of 1996. Originally, the W3C empowered representatives from 14 businesses to work together with a goal of creating a better markup language for the Internet. The XML project took eleven weeks to develop and the first Recommendation, or published goal, was finished by February of 1998 (w3.org). XML is continuously being updated and expanded to meet the needs of increasing usage. XML stands for Extensible Markup Language. XML was created to address the complexity and flexibility issues present in SGML. XML also addressed the weaknesses of HTML. HTML is a language that is mainly concerned with the format and appearanceof data on a Web page. XML was developed to provide a means for describing data and is not concerned with appearances. The designers wanted XML to be easily understood by programmers, easily processed by computers, and compatible with many applications and devices.STRUCTURE AND COMPONENTSProgrammers who use XML must follow strict rules and guidelines. These rules strive to ensure the trouble-free communication between computers and they reduce the probability of errors. Programmers must write the files according to prescribed methods or the computer will not be able to process the information. The major components of XML documents are tags and DTDs.3Tags are words encased in brackets and are used in both HTML and XML but in different ways. HTML uses tags to tell the browser how to display the information, whereas XML tags describe what the information actually is. A good way to display the differences between HTML and XML tags is by showing the following examples:1.) <html><Head><title><b>Address book</b></head><p>Vikki Hilway5 Mt. Hood Lane Sunriver, Oregon 97707 541-555-1212</p></html>2.) <Address book > <name>Vikki Hilway</name> <street>5 Mt. Hood Lane</street> <city>Sunriver</city> <state>Oregon</state> <zip>97707</zip> <phone>541-555-1212</phone></Address book>Anyone can write an XML tag as long as it is properly structured and a means for interpretation is provided. This means comes in the form of a DTD or XML schema. DTD stands for Document Type Definition. Programmers create DTDs in order for a computer to process the tag’s meaning in a given file. One can think of a DTD as a reference library that is available to the computer if it requires the definition of a tag. This is necessary because tags with the same name can mean different things in different 41.) The tags in this HTML example are:<html> HTML document<Head> heading<title> title<b> bold type<p> paragraph These tags are used to tell a computer how to format the data on a Web page. They do not tell the computer what the content is. 2.) The tags in this XML example are: <Address book> <name> <street> <city> <state> <zip> <phone>As you can clearly see, these tags describe what the content is.applications. For example, in a business application the tag <product> could stand for the name of a good produced by a company. However, the same tag used in a math document could describe the result of multiplying numbers together. An XML schema is simply a DTD written in XML for XML files. REAL WORLD APPLICATIONSThere have been multiple tools and applications developed around the relatively new XML language. Between 1985 and 1998 these types of applications would have been developed around SGML but due to the advent of XML, programmers are using the extensible language instead.MathMLMathML is an application of XML that has proven to be very useful to anyone that uses the Internet for analyzing, gathering, or presenting mathematical and/or scientific data. We know from our own studies that it is virtually impossible to render any advanced mathematical equations on a browser. An example of this would be trying to display the quadratic equation. As a consequence, mathematical expression must usually be rendered using an image file such as GIF or JPG. More importantly, it has also been very hard, if not impossible, to use the computer to interpret these expressions and to compute with them. These are two of the problems that MathML is attempting to solve. A W3C workgroup is responsible for its creation and evolution (w3.org).Staying in line with the concept of XML, MathML uses specific tags that “mark- up” a mathematical expression so that it is displayed on a monitor in a way that the user can read and understand. The computer also understands what mathematical processes 5need to be performed with the expression. The program receiving the MathML-coded expression now knows what the equation means. The following example is based on materials found at the W3C’s website (http://www.w3.org/Math/whatIsMathML.html). Expression: X3 - 5X - 2 =0MathML code representing the expression:<mrow> <mrow> <msup> <mi>x</mi> <mn>3</mn> </msup> <mo>-</mo> <mrow> <mn>5</mn> <mo>⁢</mo> <mi>x</mi> </mrow> <mo>-</mo> <mn>2</mn> </mrow> <mo>=</mo> <mn>0</mn></mrow>MathMl tags usually begin with m and then are followed by o, i, or n. These stand for operator, identifier, and number respectively. The mrow tags indicate that content between them is organized into horizontal groups (w3.org). Notice that these encase the whole equation and each individual element within
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