XML 101
My latest XML Strategist article, “The ABCs of XML,” is available as a PDF file (144K). This article was originally published in the September/October 2009 issue of Intercom.
The technical side of XML is not much more difficult than HTML; if you can handle a few HTML angle brackets you can learn XML. […] If […] you don’t like using styles and
prefer to format everything as you go, you are going to loathe structured authoring.
Just trying to make sure that there are no surprises. The article itself is a very basic introduction to the principles that make XML important for technical communication: automation, baseline architecture (sorry…I had problems with B), and consistency.
About the author
Bill Albing
Your article on XML is a great summary of the business value of XML and why professionals need to be aware of it. It’s interesting that XML has never achieved a commonly accepted user interface — HTML has the browser and web site management tools, but XML is so flexible — its blessing and its curse — that you can’t point to a single tool or interface when discussing XML. So discussions of XML can become either too technical when discussing details or too abstract when discussing generalities. Keep up the good work.