Week 9: XML

The creation of the website is one method of distributing information, which can be accomplished by having a basic understanding of HTML. Although the language is the essence of the website, the coding can be extremely tedious to execute. In need of simplification without the risk of sacrificing the quality, the introduction of CSS has demonstrated that such a transition was possible. However, there has been yet another need to be spared from trouble without cutting corners, which in turn led to the creation of the Extensible Markup Language (or XML). The objective of XML is to further simplify the process of distributing information. Because the language utilizes a process where documents can be exchanged, information can be made available via files instead of going through the hassle of publishing the entire content through a website, which in itself takes up a lot of time and space, and makes the source available only in one format. In order for users to learn how to achieve such simplification, they would need to learn the language. While Martin Bryan was able to introduce the language to the readers, André Bergholz provides an opportunity to go a little more into details, since the latter demonstrates XML being put into use by showing examples of the coding. Although both authors do their part in giving a general idea about the language, what they present are mere samples compared to what else XML has to offer. Uche Ogbuji has shown that because of the potential XML was capable of wielding, it was able to inspire the creation of other technologies that also made use of the language, with one of them including the W3C XML Schema. Such a breakthrough was able to simplify the process of handling XML files even further by breaking down and organizing documents of the language in a manner that can recognize authenticity and transfer content more easily. Of course, this goal cannot be achieved without having a better understanding of this program as well, which is what the availability of the “XML Schema Tutorial” from W3Schools tries to accomplish. The tutorial tries to explain as much as it possible can in a very well-detailed manner, and not to mention it is just as well-organized to help provide reference.

There is a French expression that goes “Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose,” which is often translated as “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Such a proverb would especially apply to this case. The objective behind the creation of the website is to enable wider availability for sources of information to be accessed; therefore easier to retrieve. Yet in order to know how information could be published in such a manner, people first had to know how to communicate via HTML. The language obviously had its difficulties, especially since there was so much to memorize and repeat. That was why CSS was invented in an attempt to relieve where the former language imposes stress. Yet in order to achieve that goal, there had to be mastery of the new language as well. Of course, if there were certain aspects about HTML that could be simplified, then a similar case should apply to CSS, which is where XML would come. Yet in order to know how CSS can be further simplified, which in itself tries to simplify HTML, one needs to achieve mastery of XML. Because of what XML was capable of achieving, other technologies were created based on that language, which were intended to simplify certain aspects of it even further, with W3C XML Schema as one example. Yet in order to understand how the language was intended to simplify certain aspects of XML, which in itself simplifies certain aspects of CSS, which in itself simplifies certain aspects of HTML, one needs to master W3C XML Schema. Under the assumption it has not happened already (and I am sure it has), it will only be a matter of time the latest one will go through a similar process. Even when one obtains full mastery of one language, there is still the importance of learning about the predecessors. In case a problem occurs where the simplified version cannot notice, it is by having knowledge of the most essential aspect of the infrastructure (in this case, HTML), that the root cause can be identified and repaired. And because there were so many layers implied intended to simplify everything, such tasks become all the more difficult to straighten when they get out of control. This is the whole irony of the situation, and it only gets more ironic.