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Standard + Extensions?

 
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Will XML developers suffer the same bruises as HTML developers, most notably those inflicted by standard XML plus extensions to the standard? The various extensions to HTML are one of my dislikes of writing web applications. I have such a dislike that I would much rather write the server-side code than do any of the client-side work. Such extensions have caused my company to almost entirely ignore any effort in making our clients' web apps. compatible with Navigator or other browsers; and we do this by simply stating that standardizing on IE is the way to go. While I realize that there is an HTML standard and that the problem is not the lack of a standard but the use of the extensions, who knew what travails lie ahead when Netscape and later Microsoft implemented their own extensions?
 
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Uhhm, like, the X in XML stands for eXtensible.
Fortunately for you, XML does not concern itself with presentation. Only with developing unambigous standards for storing data. In order for that data to be presented to a browser, you still have to generate HTML from the XML.
The beauty of XML is I can have one XML file for the data, and then with the help of an XSLT, I can have that data formatted for presentation to a browser, a cell phone, a PDA or whatever else comes along.
 
Craig Demyanovich
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I know to what the acronym expands, and you even spelled "eXtensible" correctly. I concede, however, that my post was hurried and therefore unclear. Furthermore, I've had no time to keep pace with all the acronyms popping up around XML; I've managed only a rudimentary understanding of a few of them. I was inspired to post by the myriad of headlines and summaries that I've seen regarding various companies or groups of companies pushing their product/solution for making use of XML. Microsoft's BizTalk comes to mind.
 
Andrew Shafer
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The main uses for XML, at least at my level of understanding, will be to warehouse data in XML files and to provide a standard for inter-application communications.
You still have all the problems that non-standard browsers create when you are presenting the information, because it will still be presented in html.
If you are interested in reading, there is a nice new article about setting up XML/XSLT to serve HTML, WML and PDF files from the same XML file at www.devshed.com/Client_Side/XML/INTCXX/
You could also use this technology to create two seperate html files from your XML, one for IE and one for Netscape.
 
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