Subject: ANNOUNCE: XML-DEV

Date: Mon, 24 Feb 97 13:17:09 GMT

From: Peter@ursus.demon.co.uk (Peter Murray-Rust)

Newsgroup: comp.text.sgml


		XML-DEV: a mailing list for XML developers
		------------------------------------------

(XML is the new 'extremly simple dialect' of SGML being sponsored by the
W3C.  To find out more, the FAQ is at http://www.ucc.ie/xml).

We have just set up a mailing list for those interested in developing 
XML applications and technology.  We use the word 'develop' in a wide 
sense and encourage anyone who is actively interested in implementing XML
to participate.  The list is unmoderated, and digested and you can subscribe
by posting to 

majordomo@ic.ac.uk

with message

subscribe xml-dev yourname@yoursite

The list traffic is _publicly_ hypermailed at:
http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/

Rationale for the list
----------------------

The XML editorial review board (ERB) (advised by the working group (WG)) have
posted a draft spec for the first part of the language.  This is publicly
available for examination by those who want to develop full XML applications
or components of the technology.  We feel that this will be helped by 
public discussion among these groups on topics including, but not limited to:

	- how do I implement (this part of) the spec?
	- how do I convert my current DTDs, catalogs, EntitySets, etc. to XML?
	- how do I configure my server to assemble or serve an XML document?
	- what software components are available for building prototypes or
		products?
	- can we develop a consistent public API for XML?
	- how will XML interoperate with MIME/CORBA, etc.?

By building prototypes and demonstrators, and standardising the components
from which they are built, we hope to get XML off to a  flying start.  XML
has great potential both inside the current SGML community and in novel
applications on  the WWW (where subscribers may not be familiar with 
SGML/XML).  As part of the XML effort we hope to encourage the public
cooperative development of interoperable components and we expect some of 
the discussion to centre on parsers, editors, search engines, browsers,
link processors and so on.  We also expect discussion on the translation
of common components (DTDs, entity sets) to XML and on the most appropriate
ways of authoring them, either with existing tools or new ones.

NOTE:  The second phase of XML (hyperlinking) is still under active 
discussion and is not yet formalised to the state where protoypes can
be built.  The third phase (stylesheets) will be discussed later this year.

NOTE:  The list is NOT for casual queries like "What is XML" (see the FAQ)
or "Can you add Foo to the spec?" (the WG/ERB has that role).  We hope
that general tutorials, examples, test sets, etc. will be produced by the
community and that we and the FAQ  will be able to point enquirers to them.

Henry Rzepa (Chemistry, Imperial College, London, UK)
Peter MR.
-- 
Peter Murray-Rust, domestic net connection
Virtual School of Molecular Sciences
http://www.vsms.nottingham.ac.uk/