Hour4.Digging Deeper into XML Documents

Hour 4. Digging Deeper into XML Documents

Promoting XML is kinda like selling illegal drugs, where the first acronym is always free.

Jeff Lowery

Unfortunately, the steady stream of XML acronyms will only continue to flow by as you progress through this book. This hour introduces you to a few more acronyms, and along the way takes a closer look at the inner workings of XML documents. You will find out that in addition to the logical structure of documents that is dictated by elements, there is also a physical structure that is very important. This physical structure of documents is determined by entities, which are units of storage that house content within documents. Closely related to entities are notations, which make it possible for XML applications to handle certain types of entities that aren't capable of being processed. This hour tackles entities and notations along with a few other important topics related to the inner workings of XML documents. Oh, and don't forget about those new acronyms you get to add to your rapidly growing XML vocabulary!

In this hour, you'll learn

• How to document your XML code with comments

• How characters of text are encoded in XML

• All about entities and how they are used

• Why notations make it possible to use certain kinds of entities