|
XML
Standards Update;
New W3C Recommendations
In April and May of 2001, a number of new W3C recommendations were
announced. In the jargon of W3C, a "Recommendation" is the final
version of a specification, or what the world will consider to be the
"Standard." A Recommendation is "stable and has been reviewed by the
W3C Membership, who favors its adoption by academic, industry, and research
communities." New W3C Recommendations that have been recently announced
include:
- Modularization of XHTML
- XML Schema; Formal Description
- Ruby Annotation
- XHTML 1.1
Modularization of XHTML
On April 10, 2001, The World Wide Web Consortium released Modularization
of XHTML as a W3C
Recommendation. This particular specification for XHTML defines a method
for separating XHTML into a collection of modules grouped by related HTML
functionalities, such as lists, forms, tables, and images. XHTML
modularization provides a set of standard building blocks for creating content
as well as standard methods for specifying which blocks are used.
Modularization
of XHTML is the third Recommendation the W3C HTML Working Group has
produced in the past 15 months that extends HTML's ability to
reach onto emerging Web platforms like mobile devices, television, and
appliances in an XML form of HTML. Other Recommendations in the
"family" include XHTML
1.0 in January 2000, and XHTML
Basic in December 2000. Many companies in the telecommunications
industry have already committed to implement XHTML. The W3C HTML Working
Group consists of key industry leaders and experts such as Applied Testing and
Technology, Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
(Panasonic), Microsoft and Philips Electronics.
XML Schema Definition Language
On May 2, 2001, the World Wide Web Consortium released XML Schema as a W3C
Recommendation in three parts: Part
0: Primer, Part
1: Structures, Part
2: Datatypes. XML Schemas define the structure of XML documents and
provide hooks to associate semantics with them.
The XML Schema specification consists of three parts. The first part (really,
part 0) is a primer, which explains what schemas are and how you can build
a schema. The second part of the specification proposes methods for
describing the structure and constraining the contents of XML documents, and
defines the rules governing schema-validation of documents. The third part
defines a set of simple datatypes, which can be associated with XML element
types and attributes; this allows XML software to do a better job of managing
dates, numbers, and other special forms of information.
In many ways, XML Schema is much like the XML DTD (Document Type
Definition). One major difference is the addition of datatyping. By
bringing datatypes to XML, XML Schema increases XML's power and utility to the
developers of electronic commerce systems, database authors and anyone
interested in using and manipulating large volumes of data on the Web. Schemas
are also the product of W3C, and as such, has been specified with the clear
intent of integration with other Web standards such as XML Namespaces. In
this sense XML Schema makes it easier than it has ever been to define the
elements and attributes in a namespace, and to validate documents which use
multiple namespaces defined by different schemas. Finally, XML Schema is
specified in XML, not in the SGML DTD language. This enables us to use the
same processors to read a schema as to read an XML document.
Ruby Annotation
On May 31, 2001, the World Wide Web Consortium released the Ruby Annotation as a W3C
Recommendation. Ruby is a short run of text alongside base text
typically used in East Asian documents to indicate pronunciation or
annotation. Ruby is one more of the underlying technologies that support
the Web as a universal information space.
"Ruby" gets its name from annotations that British printers used to
describe a 5.5 point type face. Ruby annotations regularly appear in Japanese
magazines, as well as Chinese and Japanese textbooks. Style sheet
languages such as CSS or XSL can fulfill the requirements for international
typography on the Web. But additional markup is needed to define the
relationship between the base text and its annotation. Ruby Annotation delivers
this functionality to the Web in the form of an XHTML module. This enables
Ruby to be correctly rendered along with the basic text without using special
workarounds or graphics.
XHTML 1.1 (Module-Based)
Also on May 31, 2001 the World Wide Web Consortium released a modular version
of XHTML 1.1 as a W3C Recommendation. HTML 1.1 is a reformulation of XHTML 1.0 Strict based on XHTML
modules, including the Ruby Annotation module, enhancing both XHTML 1.1's power
and extensibility.
Return
to TOC
|
