A.1 What Is XML?

XML, the Extensible Markup Language, is an Internet-friendly format for data and documents invented by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The "Markup" denotes a way of expressing the structure of a document within the document itself. XML has its roots in a markup language called SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language), which is used in publishing. HTML was an application of SGML to web publishing. XML was created to do for machine-readable documents on the Web what HTML did for human-readable documents that is, provide a commonly agreed-upon syntax so that processing the underlying format becomes common place and documents are made accessible to all users.

Unlike HTML, though, XML comes with very little predefined. HTML developers are accustomed both to the notion of using angle brackets (< >) for denoting elements, and also to the set of element names themselves (such as head, body, etc.). XML shares only the former feature (i.e., the notion of using angle brackets for denoting elements). Unlike HTML, XML has no predefined elements, but is merely a set of rules that lets you write other languages like HTML.

Because XML defines so little, it is easy for everyone to agree to use the XML syntax, and then to build applications on top of it. It's like agreeing to use a particular alphabet and set of punctuation symbols, but not saying which language to use. This offers immense flexibility, much like the flexibility you're used to having in creating your own Word templates, Excel spreadsheets, or Access databases.