Means W. Scott - XML in a Nutshell

Scalable Vector Graphics, a W3C-endorsed standard XML encoding of line art.

The Mathematical Markup Language, a W3C-endorsed standard XML application used for embedding equations in web pages and other documents.

The Resource Description Framework, a W3C-standard XML application used for describing resources, with a particular focus on the sort of metadata one might find in a library card catalog.

Occasionally we use one or more of these applications in an example, but we do not cover all aspects of the relevant vocabulary in depth. While interesting and important, these applications (and thousands more like them) are intended primarily for use with special software that knows their formats intimately. For instance, most graphic designers do not work directly with SVG. Instead, they use their customary tools, such as Adobe Illustrator, to create SVG documents. They may not even know they're using XML.

This book focuses on standards that are relevant to almost all developers working with XML. We investigate XML technologies that span a wide range of XML applications, not those that are relevant only within a few restricted domains.

XML has not stood still in the two years since the second edition of XML in a Nutshell was published. The single most obvious change is that this edition now covers XML 1.1. However, the genuine changes in XML 1.1 are not as large as a .1 version number increase would imply. In fact, if you don't speak Mongolian, Burmese, Amharic, Cambodian, or a few other less common languages, there's very little new material of interest in XML 1.1. In almost every way that practically matters, XML 1.0 and 1.1 are the same. Certainly there's a lot less difference between XML 1.0 and XML 1.1 than there was between Java 1.0 and Java 1.1. Therefore, we will mostly discuss XML in this book as one unified thing, and only refer specifically to XML 1.1 on those rare occasions where the two versions are in fact different. Probably about 98% of this book applies equally well to both XML 1.0 and XML 1.1.

We have also added a new chapter covering XInclude, a recent W3C invention for assembling large documents out of smaller documents and pieces thereof. Elliotte is responsible for almost half of the early implementations of XInclude, as well as having written possibly the first book that used XInclude as an integral part of the production process, so it's a subject of particular interest to us. Other chapters throughout the book have been rewritten to reflect the impact of XML 1.1 on their subject matter, as well as independent changes their technologies have undergone in the last two years. Many topics have been upgraded to the latest versions of various specifications, including:

Finally, many small errors and omissions were corrected throughout the book.