According to Wikipedia XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a set of rules for encoding documents electronically. XML’s design goals emphasize simplicity, generality, and usability over the Internet. It is a textual data format, with strong support via Unicode for the languages of the world. Although XML’s design focuses on documents, it is widely used for the representation of arbitrary data structures, for example in web services.
There are a variety of programming interfaces which software developers may use to access XML data, and several schema systems designed to aid in the definition of XML-based languages.
As of 2009, hundreds of XML-based languages have been developed,including RSS, Atom, Soap, and XHTML. XML has become the default file format for most office-productivity tools, including Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org, AbiWord, and Apple’s iWork.
And HTML is the predominant markup language for Web pages. It provides a means to describe the structure of text-based information in a document written in tags.
XML-Training-Guide.com says that XML and HTML are different and they both have different goals. They are designed for different purposes. Some people think that xml is an advanced version of html and it has come to replace html. It is not the case. Both will be there as they are used for different purposes.
XML files are meant to hold data and data in an xml file is well described. If you look at an xml file you can say what it holds. For example if you find a number in an xml file you can find out easily what that number identifies, whether it is the number of products, or the price of a product etc. In html it is not the case.
HTML is used to display the data in a formatted way. You can apply styles and use different layouts to display the data in an html file. The data that is displayed in an html file could come from an xml file.
Resources:
- HTML. (2009, August 26). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:28, August 25, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HTML&oldid=257683789
- Markup language. (2009, August 26). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:36, August 25, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Markup_language&oldid=257834827
- XML-Training-Guide.com (2009, August 26). Retrieved 18:46, August 25,2009, from http://www.xml-training-guide.com/d-xml4.html
