Additional Resources

The patterns and tools introduced in this chapter are not limited to the catalog viewer written in Java.

Other Applications

Many applications will benefit from using XML as lightweight data storage. In addition, XML is such a versatile format that it can be applied in any industry.

Many reasons exist to choose XML as a file format. The following are some of the most popular reasons:

• XML works well with object-oriented languages such as Java.

• By choosing XML, your application has the backing of some of the biggest names in the industry: Microsoft, IBM, Sun, Oracle, and Netscape. In practice, this means your files interface more easily into their systems.

• XML is easy to use and easy to learn. Plus, more professionals are learning XML, which means even more support exists for it.

• XML has good press. I saved this one for the end. Please note that I didn't write "there's a lot of hype around XML." A few of my customers have adopted XML because it looks good on their press release but more have adopted it because they want to benefit from the growing XML industry.

Parsers in Other Languages

SAX parsers are available to most programming languages, including

• C++ ” The C++ version of the Xerces parser also is available from http://xml.apache.org.

• Python ” SAX for Python is available from http://www.stud.ifi.uio.no/ ~lmariusg/download/python/xml/saxlib.html.

• Perl ” XML::Parser::PerlSAX is available from http://www.bitsko.slc.ut.us/ libxml-perl.

• Eiffel ” eXML is available from exml. sourceforge .net.

• And most languages on the Windows platform (Visual Basic, Delphi) through ActiveSAX ” ActiveSAX is a commercial COM component available from http://www. vivid -creations.com.