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NEW YORK - Dec. 10, 1997 - At Fall Internet World '97 today, Microsoft Corp. announced commitment from leading third-party software vendors and vertical market industry initiatives to support the Extensible Markup Language (XML), enabling the delivery of structured data over the Web in a consistent, standards-based format.
Following is a summary of today's announcements:
"XML tool and vocabulary support allows the industry to deliver on the promise of rich Web applications," said David Cole, vice president of the Internet client and collaboration division at Microsoft. "Microsoft® Internet Explorer 4.0's built-in support for XML makes it the best client platform for these applications."
Comprehensive Tools Support for XML
Through these tools, developers will be able to use XML-enabled databases, data conversion utilities, authoring and development tools, and data management applications to assist in the delivery of XML data across the Web. Also at the show, ArborText and Inso previewed Extensible Style Language (XSL)-enabled tools for building custom interfaces from structured XML data.
"XML is the key enabling technology for the next generation of data-intensive enterprise applications on the Web," said Bob Zurek, vice president, Web development tools, Sybase Corp. "With Sybase's Powersite and Microsoft's leading support for XML in Internet Explorer 4.0, developers can build the next generation of Web applications today."
Leading Industries Plan to Adopt XML
Organizations from two of the largest vertical industry sectors - the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and the Telecommunications Industry Forum (TCIF) - plan to deliver existing data, currently stored in relational databases and structured documents, over the Web via XML. This will allow suppliers and customers to exchange and deliver data in a consistent, standards-based data format, preserving existing investments in structured data.
"The automotive industry is keenly aware of the need to share structured data quickly and fully between customers and suppliers," said Dianne Kennedy, chairwoman, SAE data standards working group. "Now, with XML, Microsoft and the industry are enabling our manufacturers to deliver that structured data over the Web today."
Leading XML Support Today
With Internet Explorer 4.0, Microsoft is delivering leading XML parser and vocabulary support, making Internet Explorer the platform for delivering data-driven Web applications. Microsoft is also a key founder of the XML Working Group of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and has submitted core XML-related proposals to the W3C. This includes the XML Proposed Recommendation and the XSL proposal co-submitted with ArborText and Inso.
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