XML: Recommended Reading, by Adam Rifkin and Rohit Khare

Lately, the world has an interest in XML. Some places we recommend to start learning about XML are:

  1. XML for Beginners
  2. W3C's XML page
  3. Robin Cover's XML page
  4. Peter Flynn's XML FAQ
  5. James Tauber's XML site
  6. XML-Dev Jewels -- nuggets from the XML developers list

Excellent books for those wanting to learn XML are:

  1. Presenting XML by Richard Light, Sams.Net, August 1997. ( order it from Amazon)
  2. XML: Principles, Tools, and Techniques, edited by Dan Connolly and Rohit Khare, O'Reilly and Associates, Autumn 1997. ( order it from Amazon)
  3. Teach Yourself XML in 21 Days, by James Tauber, SamsNet, October 1998. ( order it from Amazon)
  4. The XML Handbook, by Charles F. Goldfarb and Paul Prescod, Prentice Hall PTR, May 1998. ( order it from Amazon)
  5. Structuring XML Documents, by David Megginson, Prentice Hall PTR, May 1998. ( order it from Amazon)
  6. XML by Example: A Webmaster's Guide, by Sean McGrath, Prentice Hall PTR, May 1998. ( order it from Amazon)
  7. Designing XML Internet Applications, by Michael Leventhal, David Lewis, and Matthew Fuchs, Prentice Hall PTR, May 1998. ( order it from Amazon)

Excellent books for those wanting to learn SGML are:

  1. The SGML Handbook by Charles Goldfarb, Clarendon, February 1991.
  2. SGML on the Web: Small Steps Beyond HTML, by Yuri Rubinsky and Murray Maloney, Prentice Hall, February 1997.

Some other books on XML:

  1. The SGML FAQ Book: Understanding the Foundation of HTML and XML, by Steven J. DeRose, Kluwer, June 1997.
  2. XML Complete by Steven Holzner, McGraw Hill, December 1997.
  3. SGML Buyer's Guide: A Unique Guide to Determining Your Requirements and Choosing the Right SGML and XML Products and Services, by Charles F. Goldfarb, Steve Pepper, and Chet Ensign, Prentice Hall, January 1998.
  4. XML: A Primer by Simon St. Laurent, IDG Books, January 1998.
  5. XML for Dummies, by Ed Tittle, James Michael Stewart, and Ruth Maran, IDG Books, February 1998.
  6. XML: Extensible Markup Language, by Justin Higgins and Ruth Maran, IDG Books, February 1998.
  7. Implementing CDF Channels by Michele Jo Petrovsky, McGraw Hill, February 1998.
  8. XML for Dummies Quick Reference, by Mariva Aviram, IDG Books, May 1998.
  9. Instant XML Programmer's Reference by Trevor Jenkins, Wrox Press, May 1998.
  10. Hands on XML by Rob Tidrow, Prima, May 1998.
  11. Practical Guide to SGML/XML Filters by Norman E. Smith, Wordware Publishing, June 1998.
  12. Teach Yourself XML in 21 Days, by James Tauber, Sams.Net, October 1998.
  13. Using XML, by Patricia Ju, Que Education, October 1998.

In summer 1997, we made some notes to summarize what we've learned about XML:

  1. An Initial Investigation of XML notes by Adam Rifkin
  2. Automating the Web Through XML notes by Rohit Khare and Adam Rifkin

Since then, Rohit and I have written several papers about our experiences with XML:

  1. X Marks the Spot: Using XML to Automate the Web by Rohit Khare and Adam Rifkin (IEEE Internet Computing, July/August 1997, Volume 1, Number 4, Pages 78-87; a slightly revised copy appeared in Japanese in Nikkei Electronics, January 5 1998, Pages 221-234)
  2. The Evolution of Web Documents: The Ascent of XML by Dan Connolly, Rohit Khare and Adam Rifkin (XML special issue of the World Wide Web Journal, Autumn 1997, Volume 2, Number 4, Pages 119-128)
  3. Capturing the State of Distributed Systems with XML by Rohit Khare and Adam Rifkin (XML special issue of the World Wide Web Journal, Autumn 1997, Volume 2, Number 4, Pages 207-218)
  4. The Origin of (Document) Species by Rohit Khare and Adam Rifkin (Presented at the WWW7 Conference in Brisbane, Australia, April 14-18, 1998)
  5. XML: The Least You Need to Know ( with examples) by Rohit Khare and Adam Rifkin, presented at Systor in Basel, Switzerland, January 19, 1998, as part of their ongoing CHOOSE-Events (see Systor/CHOOSE-Event: XML for Software Construction)
  6. Not about XML but certainly related: Weaving a Web of Trust by Rohit Khare and Adam Rifkin (Security special issue of the World Wide Web Journal, Summer 1997, Volume 2, Number 3, Pages 77-112)

What follows are some of the links I have assembled in my XML adventures...

  1. XML for Beginners
  2. XML Specifications and Documents
  3. Advanced XML and SGML Topics
  4. XML Software
  5. XML-Related Issues and Papers

Links: XML for Beginners

  1. The Web is Ruined and I Ruined It by Dave Siegel ( mirror on FoRK / mirror at SIL)
  2. An Introduction to XML by Lars Marius Garshol
  3. Beyond HTML: XML and Automated Web Processing by Tim Bray (very well written article about information automation)
  4. Irt.Org's FAQs on XML, CSS, HTML, Java, CGI/Perl, and Javascript
  5. What is XML?, by GCA
  6. XML for Managers, by Arbortext
  7. Web Review's XML Papers
  8. Anchordesk's Story on why XML is Relevant (with links to several other trade articles)
  9. A Technical Introduction to understanding the XML Specifications by Norman Walsh
  10. ChannelWorld's XML links / XML at DataChannel
  11. Building Blocks - the relationship between WIDL and XML
  12. Thoughts and Software on XML by Bert Bos
  13. XML at Textuality
  14. XML at W3C article
  15. Design Principles for XML
  16. webMethod's technology
  17. SGML: A Gentle Introduction from Text Encoding Initiative
  18. WebMonkey: "XML: Metadata for the Rest of Us", August 1997
  19. XML: a professional alternative to HTML, Experts' Revolution by Ingo Macherius, June 1997

Links: XML-Related Recommendations, Working Drafts, Specifications, and Notes

  1. Reports from the W3C SGML and XML ERBs (that is, a history of XML discussions as of December 1997)
  2. Extensible Markup Language (XML): Part 1. Syntax (W3C Recommendation, December 8, 1997)
  3. Extensible Markup Language (XML): Part 2. Linking
  4. XS -- eXtensible Style Sheets
  5. W3C XML Page
  6. W3C SGML and XML Activity Page
  7. XML Name Spaces note
  8. XML Data Vocabulary for Schemas note
  9. W3C Data Formats note by Tim Berners-Lee
  10. Introduction to RDF note by Ora Lassila
  11. Resource Description Framework (RDF) Model and Syntax
  12. Linguistics: Representation and Exchange of Knowledge
  13. W3C HTML History Page
  14. HTML 4.0 Specification
  15. Conventions for using HTML Threading in email note
  16. DOM, the Document Object Model, with DOM Requirements
  17. Style Sheets - see CSS2
  18. Synchronized Multimedia - see Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language
  19. Acknowledged Submissions to the W3C
  20. Voice Browsers note
  21. Client-Specific Web Services by Using User Agent Attributes note

Links: Advanced XML and SGML Topics

  1. Archives of the W3C-SGML-WG Mailing List
  2. Archives of the XML Developers Mailing List
  3. Coins -- Java Object Serialization in XML
  4. Commonly Asked Questions about XML by Peter Flynn / FAQ about XML at Textuality
  5. DSSSL Online Application Profile
  6. Extended Pointers in TEI
  7. Finetuning.Com - an excellent collection of XML Resources quicklinked here...
    1. W3C Recommendations (all-inclusive)
    2. XML-related W3C Proposed Recommendations
    3. XML-related W3C Working Drafts
    4. XML-related W3C Notes
    5. XML FAQ From different sources
    6. Other Great XML Resource Sites
    7. White Papers
    8. Commercial XML Applications
    9. SGML Resources
  8. Finetuning.Com's List of XSL Resources -- quicklinks:
    1. XSL Overview
    2. XSL Resources
    3. DSSSL Resources
    4. CSS Tools and Resources
    5. Tutorials
  9. Graphics Communication Association has lots of SGML and XML info
  10. Frontier 5 and XML
  11. HyTime: ISO 10744 Hypermedia/Time-based Structuring Language
  12. JXML -- Java/XML Mailing List at Opengroup
  13. Microsoft's XML Page
  14. news:comp.text.sgml
  15. SGML Web page by Robin Cover, THE page for SGML including a thorough Bibliography
  16. SGML: Academic Projects by Robin Cover
  17. SGML, DSSSL, and HyTime
  18. Simple XML, a simplified XML with Java software, by Bert Bos
  19. Specialists in Generalized Markup Language
  20. TEI Extended Pointers, a brief tutorial
  21. WebTechs HTML and XML Validation Service
  22. Whirlwind Guide to SGML Tools and Vendors by Steve Pepper
  23. XML Bibliography: Summary Descriptions and News Articles by Robin Cover
    1. XML: Overview
    2. XML/XLL/XSL Specifications: Reference Documents
    3. XML FAQ Documents: Answers to "Frequently-Asked-Questions"
    4. XML Information Online: Other WWW Sites
    5. XML: Proposed Applications and Industry Initiatives
    6. XML News and Industry Support
    7. XML Surveys and Overview Articles: General
    8. XML Design and Development Resources: Technical
    9. XML/XSL Software
    10. XML Books
    11. XML: Examples and Non-Examples
    12. XML: Conferences, Seminars, Workshops
    13. XML: Miscellaneous Unevaluated Uncategorized
    14. XML: Of (Possible) Historical Interest
  24. XML and SGML Bibliography by Richard Light, from his Sams.Net book, Presenting XML
  25. XML-enabled mechanisms for distributed computing on the Web by John Tigue
  26. XML-Files Newsletter at GCA
  27. XML, Java, and the future of the Web by Jon Bosak
  28. XML Summary Page by James Tauber
  29. XML-Dev Jewels -- nuggets from the XML developers list

Links: XML Applications

  1. Robin Cover's list of XML Applications and Industry Initiatives
    1. Channel Definition Format, CDF (Based on XML)
    2. Document Object Model (XML) [Level 1]
    3. Web Collections using XML
    4. Meta Content Framework Using XML (MCF)
    5. XML-Data
    6. Resource Description Framework (RDF)
    7. Open Software Description Format (OSD)
    8. HTTP Distribution and Replication Protocol (DRP)
    9. Chemical Markup Language
    10. Bioinformatic Sequence Markup Language (BSML)
    11. Open Financial Exchange
    12. Open Trading Protocol (OTP)
    13. Mathematical Markup Language
    14. OpenTag Markup
    15. Metadata - PICS
    16. Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL)
    17. Web Interface Definition Language (WIDL)
    18. XML/EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)
    19. CommerceNet Industry Initiative
    20. Translation Memory eXchange (TMX)
    21. Scripting News in XML
    22. InterX.org Initiative
    23. NuDoc Technology
    24. Ontology and Conceptual Knowledge Markup Languages
    25. Cold Fusion Markup Language (CFML)
    26. WEBDAV (IETF 'Extensions for Distributed Authoring and Versioning on the World Wide Web')
    27. Tutorial Markup Language (TML)
    28. Java Speech Markup Language (JSML)
  2. Finetuning.Com's List of XML Applications
  3. Bibliographic Data Ontology work at Stanford
  4. BSML, Bioinformatic Sequence Markup Language
  5. CML, Peter Murray-Rust's Chemical Markup Language
  6. CDF, Microsoft's Channel Definition Format
  7. HDML, Unwired Planet's Handheld Device Markup Language
  8. HL7, the SGML initiative in health care (see also: Kona)
  9. HTML Object Model / Dynamic HTML
  10. MathML, the Mathematical Markup Language
  11. MCF, Netscape's Meta Content Framework ( specification)
  12. MONDO architecture for encoding, modeling, and processing information
  13. OFX, Open Financial Exchange
  14. OpenTag, a standard extraction/abstraction text format for translation and NLP tools
  15. OSD, Open Software Description language ( specification)
  16. PICS, the Platform for Internet Content Selection / PICS-NG, Metadata Model and Label Syntax
  17. QAML, Question & Answer Markup Language
  18. RDF, Resource Description Format
  19. Site Changes records at Scripting.Com
  20. SMIL, Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language
  21. Topic Navigation Map FAQ / ISO Working Group
  22. Web Collections using XML, a metadata syntax; IBM version of the working draft
  23. W3C Submission for WIDL, the Web Interface Definition Language from webMethods to automate the Web (see also the Robin Cover overview of WIDL
  24. XML/EDI, "the E-commerce framework" (see also the Robin Cover overview of XML/EDI

Links: XML Software

  1. AElfred free Java-based XML parser by Microstar
  2. Balise XML/SGML middleware
  3. Casbah content management system for Linux
  4. Chrystal Software -- XML document management
  5. DataChannel XML Development Environment -- a collection of XML tools including parsers, viewers, APIs, documentation, and tutorials; primary contributors to DXDE include Norbert Mikula and John Tigue
  6. DSC, Language Technology Group's DSSSL syntax checker
  7. DSSSLTK, a DSSSL toolkit
  8. Finetuning.Com's list of parsers
  9. GRIF, the Symposia HTML/XML editor and browser
  10. IBM Alpaworks' validating Java XML parser by Kent Tamura and Hiroshi Maruyama
  11. Jade, James Clark's DSSSL formatting engine
  12. JML, a Java Extension to HTML
  13. JSXML, William la Forge's Java Object Stream to XML packages
  14. Jumbo, Peter Murray-Rust's Java-based XML browser of scientific information components using Java/XML, used with the Chemical Markup Language
  15. Lark, Tim Bray's non-validating XML processor in Java
  16. LTXML, Language Technology Group's XML developers' toolkit in C++ and Java
  17. MSXML, Microsoft's validating XML parser in Java
  18. NXP, Norbert Mikula's validating XML parser in Java
  19. TclXML, Steve Ball's validating XML parser for processing XML documents in Tcl
  20. QWeb, Web Browser that displays SGML documents (including HTML) according to style sheets. Here's a list of features: Progressive rendering of _everything_, Parses SGML documents, and displays according to a style sheet, Dynamically builds SGML document parser from a DTD, Normal and preformatted text, as well as tables and images, Entire document appearance is customizeable through the style sheet, Uses non-blocking I/O for throughput and responsiveness, Server-side image maps, Multi-level bookmarks, Caches web pages in memory, "file" and "http" URL methods, Multiple open browser windows, History of visited URLs, Follows HTTP redirects automatically, SGML Catalog editor, Style Sheet editor, Supports HTML forms.
  21. SP, James Clark's C++ parser for SGML and XML
  22. Stilo WebWriter an HTML/XML editor
  23. webMethods automates the Web with server software for XML
  24. XDK, Copernican Solutions' XML Developer's Toolkit middleware
  25. xmllib standard module for Python
  26. Xparse fully compliant well-formed Javascript XML parser by Jeremie

Links: XML-Related Issues and Papers

  1. Architecture of the World Wide Web
    1. An Evaluation of the World Wide Web with respect to Engelbart's Requirements, by Dan Connolly.
    2. Addressing and Naming (URLs, URIs, ...)
    3. Distributed Objects (and mobile code)
    4. Exchange (HTTP)
    5. Interfaces in Web Objects
    6. MarkUp ( SGML/XML, Style Sheets, I18N, Math)
    7. Propagation, Replication and Caching
    8. Real Time Multimedia
    9. Web Architecture Index of Terms
  2. About Document Formats by Tim Berners-Lee
  3. A Proposal for Web Metadata Operations by Jim Whitehead
  4. Beans
  5. Beyond HTML: XML and Automated Web Processing by Tim Bray (very well written article about information automation)
  6. FoRK Mailing List / Distributed Objects Mailing List / Bill Zwicky's Links / Kevin Curran's Links
  7. Infospheres , a mechanism for distributed computations on the Internet using Java
  8. Inserting Objects into HTML with the OBJECT tag (client side includes)
  9. Inserting Scripts into HTML with the SCRIPT tag (client side scripting)
  10. Link Reliability - Why URNs are Not the Answer by Dan Connolly
  11. PEP, the Protocol Extension Protocol
  12. Recent XML WG Decisions by Jon Bosak, Sept 1997
  13. Scripting: Higher Level Programming for the 21st Century by John K. Ousterhout
  14. Toward a Formalism for Communication on the Web by Dan Connolly
  15. Towards a Web Object Model, by Frank Manola
  16. URNs / URNs
  17. W3C Technical Reports
  18. Warwick Framework // Active Annotations by Ron Daniel
  19. Weaving a Web of Trust by Rohit Khare and Adam Rifkin
  20. WIDL, the Web Interface Definition Language from webMethods to automate the Web
  21. World Wide Web Security FAQ
  22. Workshop on Compositional Software Architectures, January 1998
  23. XML, Java, and the future of the Web by Jon Bosak

From Rifkin's List of Links, adam at xent dot com
Last modified: Fri May 8 04:56:01 PDT 1998