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Essay / XML: Extensible Markup Language - 3968
XML: Extensible Markup Language The World Wide Web is undergoing a sea change that offers new services and opportunities to businesses and individuals. HTML - HyperText Markup Language - is a language primarily used to generate most websites available today. However, Extensible Markup Language is now replacing Hypertext Markup Language as the most popular format. Extensible markup language will allow the use and functionality of the web to continue to grow. Extensible Markup Language is based on the Standard Generalized Markup Language. First of all, what is Standard Generalized Markup Language? Both HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and XML (Extensible Markup Language) are based on SGML - Standard Generalized Markup Language. The Standard Generalized Markup Language has been an international standard since 1986 (ISO 8879). It is a metalanguage, which simply means that it can be used to create other languages. Standard Generalized Markup Language is a descendant of earlier markup languages first developed at IBM as early as 1969. The oldest direct ancestor is GML, both of which are markup languages. for General Markup Language and contains the initials of the IBM researchers who created it: Charles F. Goldfarb, Edward Mosher and Raymond Lorie. Standard Generalized Markup Language is a much more extensive markup language than Extensible Markup Language or Hypertext Markup Language, and to this day remains as the ultimate language in the field. The ultimate goal and success of the standard generalized markup language is that it has conquered the old computing problem of the ability to communicate between different computing platforms. It allows computers to share and communicate data regardless of the hardware, operating system or software applications used. Applications such as Adobe Framemaker use it for desktop publishing. But, in general, the Generalized Standard Markup Language is considered far too complex for widespread e-commerce and other similar applications. The need for a new language to meet the new demands of the e-commerce world has become evident. The designers of Extensible Markup Language sought to generate a markup language that would enable the functionality of standard generalized markup language without the complexity. By strategically omitting large chunks of St...... middle of paper ......p Language. The difference in quality will be enormous. It is also believed that beyond the web, extensible markup language will be felt as part of the standardization of data exchange formats. In other words, with the goal of standardizing data names across similar business domains, the same standardization could be used worldwide for applications outside the spectrum of Extensible Markup Language. Extensible markup language could improve efficiency in all aspects of data exchange. With companies like Microsoft, IBM, Dow Chemical Co., DuPont, BASF and a plethora of others working together to develop standards, the future of extensible markup language and data exchange is bright!BibliographyGoldfarb, Charles F. “XML in a Nutshell: A Non-Geek Introduction.” » Oasis. October 1999. Gonsalves, Antone. “XML translation products are on the way. » eWEEK. January 2000. Halfhill, Tom. “XML: the next big thing.” » IBM Research Magazine. October 2000. Rohan, Rebecca. “New Wild Life in the XML Menagerie”. Smart partner. February 2000. Schindler, Esther. “ 1998.