[June 30, 1999] "XML vs. SGML: A Cautionary Tale." By Mike Maziarka [with Frank Gilbane, editorial overview]. In The Gilbane Report on Open Information & Document Systems Volume 7, Number 5 (May 1999), pages 1-7. [Overview] "We have remarked before that all the attention XML is receiving from the press has the disadvantage of creating unrealistic expectations about what you can do with XML. Even more dangerous is the potential for many IT managers to conclude that building XML applications is easy since everyone seems to be doing it and all products seems to support it. Because XML is so important, even industry insiders familiar with the complexities of managing unstructured data and working with markup languages often fall prey to the hungry evangelism. This month we hear from Mike Maziarka, an SGML veteran who knows from experience why SGML was difficult, and who has an aversion to hype. Mike explains why XML should not be considered all that much easier to implement." Maz writes: "Marketing muscle can make or break a product -- or a standard, in this case. As a result of Microsoft's marketing efforts, vendors -- especially those outside the traditional 'document' market -- have jumped on the bandwagon, announcing their XML support or planned support. But the promise of XML -- as compared to SGML -- was supposed to encompass more than widespread vendor support. XML is supposed to be less complicated, and as a result, easier to implement than SGML. Is this really turning out to be the case? To date, this could easily be debated. To answer this question, I think we need to look at several pieces of the puzzle: (1) the standards themselves, (2) software products that support the standards, and (3) the service component necessary to implement a system using the standards. . ."

[June 30, 1999] "Oracle and XML: Direct Connect." In The Yankee Group Research Notes Covering the week of June 29, 1999, [Item #13] "Oracle's primary strategy has been to forge direct connections from its 8i database to various types of content and data -- Web content in general and now XML specifically. This is in direct contrast to the common industry practice of using Web application servers and more specialized XML data servers for XML handling and transformation, as is the case with Bluestone's XML-Server and ODI's eXcelon Server. . . The Yankee Group believes that Oracle's broad support of XML will push the standard forward and increase its acceptance within the enterprise. At the same time, organizations will need to determine if they want their middle tier applications and data servers to handle XML transformation (as is the case with Bluestone's XML-Server and ODI's eXcelon Server), or if that is better handled closer to or within the actual database. . ."

[June 30, 1999] "XXX Notation Processors: Xperimental Xml leXer." By Rick Jelliffe. From Academia Sinica Computing Centre, Taipei, Taiwan. May 31, 1999. "This paper explains the architecture behind 'XXX: the eXperimental XML leXer'. The basic idea of XXX is that XML can be parsed using a recursive descent parser made from a highly parameterized general-purpose lexical analyser. The lexical analyser corresponds to a state in a state machine; the parameters correspond to transitions between states. Thus it is possible to go from a state-machine analysis of XML to the implementation of a lexer. Because the tokenizer is coupled to entities and not to the parser, we can use the same general-purpose tokenizer (with different parameters) to also generate a node-list tree from data in element content and in attributes. And we can use the same general-purpose parser (with different parameters) to parse the node-list of the embedded data. This could give a worthwhile decrease in code size for an XML application. . . In XML, the element tree, the entity tree, and the notation tree are all synchronous. Indeed, for simple documents with no DTD, one entity, and no embedded notations, there is no difference. Class-based XML implementations are often keyed off the element tree; it would be possible also to key a class-based implementation off the entity tree, especially for SGML which has a richer selection of notations available for entities. In this paper, I suggest that the notation tree may be the most suitable structure for tokenizer objects to follow."

[June 30, 1999] "Bow Street Offers A Custom Data Fit." By Cynthia Morgan. In Computerworld (June 28, 1999), page 72. "How do you convince 2,000 customers and suppliers that they're each getting special treatment? Web personalization, of course. Trouble is, each customer may require a slightly different data grouping or need different data formats at different times of the month. No matter how you slice the data, it's a lot of custom Web-page building. Relationship management tools target that problem by automating data-gathering and dynamic Web-page creation. In the past year, most vendors of relationship management tools have either switched to Extensible Markup Language (XML) or added XML support to their tools. Start-up Bow Street Software Inc. in Portsmouth, N.H., takes that a step further by combining XML tagging with network directory authentication. Bow Street's Web Services Architecture (WSA), now in beta testing, adds what may be the smartest step of all: Instead of requiring information technology managers to spend hours building and maintaining a separate database of clients and authorizations, WSA relies on the network's own directory services to provide information needed to authenticate users and track which data they may view." See also Bow Street Software.

[June 30, 1999] "IBM, Rational Work on Development Tools." By David Orenstein. In Computerworld (June 29, 1999). "IBM and Rational Software Corp. in Cupertino, Calif., yesterday announced a partnership under which Rational's application development management tools will be integrated with IBM's development framework for Java and Extensible Markup Language (XML) e-business applications. Rational makes tools for designing and testing applications and managing their development. The add-in can be downloaded as of tomorrow from www.software.ibm.com/vadd." See the announcement and XMI toolkit: bridge to Rational Rose.

[June 29, 1999] "XML Forms Architecture Sparks Standards Fight." By Jeff Walsh. In InfoWorld (June 26, 1999). "Jetform this week is announcing a new forms architecture based on the Extensible Markup Language (XML), with the goal of automating business processes. The XML Forms Architecture (XFA) is touted on the company's Web site as being the "first open standards-based forms architecture," a statement which raised eyebrows in the XML community, because Uwi.com introduced a similar architecture, the Extensible Forms Description Language (XFDL), in August 1998. Both companies are working with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to inform working groups of their requirements, rather than pitching their languages as stand-alone standards. Both say they do not foresee controlling a proprietary schema as a business model." See "XML Forms Architecture (XFA)" and the press release.

[June 30, 1999] "App Development Eased with XML." By Mark Hammond. In PC Week [Online] (June 28, 1999). "Oracle Corp. unveiled last week a new set of XML components that it says will ease access to and use of legacy data. The database giant announced at its iDevelop conference in Boston a pair of Extensible Markup Language parsers for C and C++. The parsers, which run on an application server, enable developers to access legacy information and transport it between applications using XML, Oracle officials said. They complement existing parsers for Java and Oracle's PL/SQL language."

[June 29, 1999] "IBM and Rational Sign Java, XML Agreement." By Ed Scannell and Dana Gardner. In InfoWorld (June 28, 1999). "In a move to bolster their ability to create and speed to market enterprise-scale electronic-business applications, IBM today will announce a marketing and development alliance with Rational Systems that heavily promotes Java and Extensible Markup Language (XML) as well as the fledgling Unified Modeling Language (UML) and XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) programming standards." See the press release.

[June 29, 1999] "Nancy Lee -- Sun's XML Product Manager Sees Synergy Between Java and XML ." By Jeff Walsh. In InfoWorld (June 26, 1999). [Interview with Nancy Lee, Sun's product manager for XML, discussing the relation between XML and Java.] "Java and Extensible Markup Language (XML) have long been touted as technologies that complement one another. The marriage of a cross-platform programming language with a cross-platform rich data format made sense to XML co-author Jon Bosak, who is also a Sun employee. 'XML gives Java something to do,' was Bosak's oft-quoted remark. In a similar fashion, Bosak's latest quote about the technologies is: 'XML and Java are the yin and yang of vendor-neutral computing.' While critics sometimes scoff at Sun's vendor neutrality claims surrounding Java, there is a lot of work being done by Sun and other vendors that brings the two technologies together. IBM has posted several XML and Java tools on its alphaworks site, and Bluestone Software has a markup language that enables an XML document to be converted to a Swing-based Java application. . . The message is that XML is everywhere in the Java platform and we're providing first-class XML support. [Sun's] goal is to make it easy for developers to use XML. For example, in Java2 Enterprise Edition [J2EE], XML is going to be supported throughout J2EE for enabling business-to-business data interchange. Currently, Java Server Pages support generating and consuming XML, and you can also use Java Messaging Services and EJB to create business logic associated with XML. That's the support within the J2EE platform. . ."

[June 29, 1999] "XML Makes Object Models More Useful. Extensible Markup Language can be used for many aspects of a system's architecture, from the early stages of modeling through development." By Bruce Klein. In Information Week (June 28, 1999). "One reason for all the hype surrounding the Extensible Markup Language is the extensibility factor, which lets people come up with new and creative uses for XML almost daily. Be it document indexing or data standards, XML is relevant to the discussion. KPMG's consulting arm has found that XML can be applied to multiple aspects of a system's architecture as well, beginning at the earliest stages of business and object modeling and continuing through the various stages of development. A business domain can actually be represented in XML, and that representation can drive key components of a system's architecture, from defining messages being passed between system components to actually generating large portions of the code at each layer of the classic three-tiered architecture. From a business standpoint, an application architecture that incorporates XML is better positioned to support that same application quickly via an additional delivery channel. For example, an application that's available to users via the Web and a call center can be extended to a kiosk environment without writing an entirely new user interface from scratch. . ."

[June 29, 1999] "IBM, Rational Announce Alliance." By George DiGiacomo. In InternetNews.com (June 28, 1999). "IBM Corp. and Rational Software Corp. Monday announced a strategic alliance to jointly develop and market software to help customers accelerate the development and deployment of e-business applications. The alliance provides new integration between e-business software that is based on open industry standards such as XML and Java. IBM and Rational hope to provide support for the application development process to provide business process modeling, business requirements definition, visual modeling, code generation, configuration management, defect tracking, testing, deployment and systems management. IBM and Rational are attempting to more closely integrate Rational Suite with software from the IBM Application Framework for e-business. One new integration is a standards-based XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) bridge between IBM's VisualAge* for Java and Rational Rose, a product in Rational Suite. This enables round-trip engineering between VisualAge for Java and Rational Rose, providing generation of Java code from models and models from Java." See the press release.

[June 29, 1999] "Microsoft Won't Kill XML." By Brian Walsh. In TechWeb Network Computing (June 28, 1999). "Microsoft's use of XML benefits users, who will survive upgrades without losing the ability to process documents. It benefits developers, who will be able to leverage those document types in more situations. And it benefits Microsoft, which can focus on adding features and fixing problems other than document conversions. The XML community is widespread and deep enough to vigilantly point out departures. Now, if you harbor ideas about a new XML schema for word-processing documents or slide presentations, you might have a problem. Microsoft's overwhelming market share in productivity applications means it has a lot of weight when it comes to using XML to represent those types of documents. Note that I said using the standard, not creating a standard. It is also reasonable to assume that Boeing will have a lot to say when defining how XML can be used to describe airplane parts, or Amazon.com will have a strong idea of how it would like to see books represented." [Article also at: TechWeb.]

[June 29, 1999] "Allaire Kicks Up E-Comm Tempest." By Richard Karpinski. In InternetWeek Issue 771 (June 28, 1999). [Section: News & Analysis] "The company that brought site builders ColdFusion is extending the popular Web development package to handle the higher-end requirements of e-business. Allaire Corp. is putting the finishing touches on an e-commerce development platform, code-named Tempest, that's built on top of the core ColdFusion application server used by hundreds of thousands of Web developers. Tempest adds capabilities such as content management and syndication, rules-based security, improved application workflow and personalization. . . n addition, Tempest leverages existing Allaire technologies such as Web Distributed Data Exchange (WDDX), its XML-based data exchange format. Further out, Tempest will inherit Java technology from Live Software Inc., a company Allaire recently acquired. Roundpeg's Fisher also gave high marks to Tempest's XML-based content syndication capabilities. "It's one of the first great uses of XML," he said. For instance, a site could easily make its content available to third parties or pull in outside content using simple XML meta tags."

[June 29, 1999] "Maxor Finds Rx With Reporting Tool From Actuate." By Ellis Booker. In InternetWeek Issue 771 (June 28, 1999). "Maxor National Pharmacy Services Corp. is about to put into production a Web front end to its data warehouse that will give customers access to detailed, personalized pharmaceutical reports. new in Actuate's e.Reporting Suite 4 are support for Dynamic HTML, as well as a template-driven interface that includes customized navigation and search bars, and support for output to Adobe PDF and XML. XML can be used within Actuate in two ways: As a meta language for describing the contents of a report that can be used as input by any XML-based application or as a control managing the display of a report."

[June 29, 1999] "Next-Generation Web Banking -- With Help From Sun, Chase Manhattan Builds Financial 'Utility'." By Jeffrey Schwartz. In InternetWeek Issue 771 (June 28, 1999). "Chase Manhattan Bank has launched an integrated Web site that eventually will offer sophisticated customization and personalization. Using Java and XML technology, the site will allow searches across all of Chase's business units and will ultimately give customers a customized view of their profiles when they log on, Mazza said. Chase plans to heavily use XML to issue customized data to its employees. The bank also is building a database-centric approach to this site. Page templates, user information and other Web data will be hosted in Oracle 8i."

[June 29, 1999] "XML in the Java Platform." By Larry Cable (Senior Staff Engineer) and Mark Reinhold (Senior Staff Engineer) - Java Software, Sun Microsystems, Inc. Slides from the presentation at JavaOne '99. Overview of the 'XML Standard Extension'. [local archive copy]

[June 29, 1999] "RosettaNet decodes long-lost secrets of internetworking." By Dylan Tweney. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 25 (June 19, 1999) [Net Prophet], page 81. "Earlier this month, the consortium launched the implementation phase of its project, called eConcert, and plans to have the system fully operational by Feb. 2, 2000. Once complete, every PC manufacturer, distributor, and reseller involved in RosettaNet will use the same standards to encode product catalog data, to exchange purchase orders, or to coordinate product launches. Each interaction is defined in a set of 'partner interface processes,' which describe in great detail not only transactions but business rules and models as well. Getting everything to work together between dozens of companies is such a complex act of coordination that RosettaNet refers to the companies involved in the pilot phase as 'dance partners.' The remarkable thing about RosettaNet is that it has brought so many competitors together on the same platform. Manufacturers such as Compaq and Hewlett-Packard, resellers such as Insight and CompUSA, and software vendors such as Microsoft and Netscape have put aside their differences to sit down together on the RosettaNet board." See "RosettaNet."

[June 29, 1999] "BizTalk Gains Momentum as Microsoft Garners Application Support." By Stephen Swoyer. In ent - The Independent Newspaper for Windows NT Enterprise Computing [Online] (June 09, 1999). "When Microsoft Corp. unveiled its BizTalk initiative in early March, a number of industry watchers were skeptical of the company's ability to execute on many of its forward-looking announcements. After all, Microsoft hadn't unveiled anything substantive yet, had it? In recent months the software giant has looked to deliver on its promises by partnering with a number of application vendors and eXtensible Mark-up Language (XML) developers. As a result, BizTalk may now be poised for broader industry acceptance, shedding an initial perception of vaporware."

[June 29, 1999] "MQSeries Bolstered for Application Integration." By Christa Degnan and Antone Gonsalves. In PC Week [Online] Volume 16, Number 25 (June 21, 1999), page 15. "Enterprise application integration took a big step forward last week as IBM announced new versions of its MQSeries messaging middleware with Java and XML support. Version 2.0 of MQSeries Integrator, IBM's message broker, will ship in the fourth quarter with a new architecture that incorporates Extensible Markup Language. The upgrade will allow customers to define internal system message sets in XML and distribute them among system components via MQSeries. 'From the Java perspective, it opens them up to a whole new group of people . . . and adds further interoperability for them,' said Jeanine Fournier, an analyst with Aberdeen Group, in Boston. 'And support for XML is forward-thinking [for] when integration initiatives go outside the four walls [of an organization]'."

[June 28, 1999] "Toward an Open Rights Management Interoperability Framework." By John S. Erickson, Ph.D. (VP of Technology Strategy, Yankee Book Peddler, Inc.). (June 24, 1999). "With Xerox's upcoming unveiling of an XML-based version the Digital Property Rights Language (DPRL), I've been pondering to what extent Xerox and other rights management players (e.g., InterTrust) will work towards open standards. In particular, I'm curious to see if they'll work to foster a rights management interoperability framework analogous to (or perhaps falling within) the likes of ICE, cXML (Ariba), BizTalk (Microsoft), e-speak (HP), etc. From my understanding of Xerox's Rights Management Framework (RMF), this would minimally involve defining a set of tags such that the messaging aspects of RMF (perhaps RMF's rights services layer) could be expressed as XML-based messages that multiple applications/services could deal with. After participating for some time in various international "rights metadata" discussions, it is clear to me that a critical element to true distributed rights management will an open, service-level framework that enables peer-to-peer interoperation of rights management services and agents. On a broader scale, I've been trying to collect these thoughts as a working concept that I'm calling RightsTalk. I envision that the definition and evangelism for RightsTalk would be managed under a structure called RightsTalk.org. . ." See "Digital Property Rights Language (DPRL)."

[June 28, 1999] "CIM Creeps Ever Closer. The Common Information Model is already paying dividends, but more vendors need to get on board." By Elisabeth Horwitt. In Network World (June 21, 1999), pages 1, 59-62. "What makes all this possible is the Common Information Model (CIM), a key part of the Desktop Management Task Force's Web-based Enterprise Management (WBEM) blueprint for unified administration. CIM is a set of schemas for describing and sharing enterprisewide management information. In addition to CIM, WBEM includes these elements: (1) XML, a standardized structure for presenting and structuring management information in Web page format. XML will let management applications dynamically share CIM data. (2) HTTP for common transport of management information. (3) Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, which defines a directory infrastructure for storing and accessing management information." See "DMTF Common Information Model (CIM)." [local archive copy]

[June 26, 1999] "Microsoft's BizTalk Initiative: Do They Really Have the XML Religion? [Editor's Note]." By Jeff Hadfield [Editor in Chief, Visual Basic Programmer's Journal]. From DEV.X XML-Zone. June, 1999. "Microsoft's James Utzschneider, director of Microsoft's recently announced BizTalk initiative, recently preached that Microsoft has 'got the XML religion.' Those on the receiving end of the sermon -- congregations of jaded journalists -- reacted with a mix of hallelujahs and cries of heresy. Microsoft's BizTalk specification, now in version 0.8, is an 'open' spec guided by a standards body and is based entirely on W3C-standard XML formatting. The BizTalk Web site will house schemas (or 'contracts') that developers using XML and BizTalk have proven effective in specific, vertical implementations with specific software packages. To be posted publicly, the schemas must pass an automated standard conformance script (also promised to be freely viewable). These schemas, as Utzschneider explained them, dictate 'what I send you, what you send me back, what you promise, what you respond,' and even what specific documents are sent back and forth. He reassured listeners that Microsoft would not stray from the W3C standard but instead wanted to evangelize XML by providing a framework for showing how people can put XML to use. (For the record, he predicted that in four or five years, none of this would be an issue, since XML would be either supported natively in products or through Extended Schema Language, which maps one vendor's XML implementation to another's.)" See: "Biztalk Framework."

[June 25, 1999] "Weak Validation." By Rick Jelliffe. Academia Sinica Computing Centre. June, 1999. "Regular-expression content-models can be processed in various ways to obtain constraints which are easier to implement. Weak validation has some attractive properties that may coincide with the nature of many XML documents."

[June 25, 1999] "XML: the eXtensible Markup Language. An Introduction to XML." By Rick Jelliffe. Academia Sinica Computing Centre, Seminars and Tutorials. May/June, 1999. "The reason for XML's success is simple: (1) when computers are networked, they send chunks of information to each other; (2) this information has to be serialized, because data communication is serial (sending one piece of information after each other); (3) this serialized data has to be sent in some notation, which has to be understood by the receiving end; (4) and a standard notation for serialized data frees programmers and system developers to concentrate on more important issues: What is the structure of their data?, What is its type?, What does it mean?, What is should it look like?, or What is it supposed to do?. . ."

[June 25, 1999] "A Happy Doggy goes to the Box Factory." By Rick Jelliffe. Academia Sinica Computing Centre, Seminars and Tutorials. February, 1999. On XML and Databases ('suitable for 1 hour seminar').

[June 25, 1999] "From XML To Oracle8i And Back." By Ellis Booker. In InternetWeek (June 24, 1999). "Oracle this week released free XML components across its line of development tools. This will allow the exchange of data between XML-formatted documents and Oracle databases without the need for integrating third-party XML servers, the company said. Oracle rounded out its XML (Extensible Markup Language) interfaces for all major programming languages by releasing an XML parser for C and another for C++, and version 2.0 of its XML parser for Java. These and a previously released parser for Oracle's own PL/SQL language can be downloaded from Oracle's Web site. Version 2.0 of the XML parser for Java includes an Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) processor and a new high-performance architecture." See the news entry.

[June 25, 1999] "WordPerfect Office 2000." By [Staff]. In ZDNET TechWeb News (June 14, 1999). [From Computer Shopper] "Corel's WordPerfect Office 2000 has one advantage that neither of its rivals can claim: a devoted user base that dates back to the early days of DOS. The word processor from which the suite takes its name has been a favorite of journalists, lawyers. . . WordPerfect lets you publish documents to HTML, Trellix, and PDF; you can also build and validate SGML or XML documents. Most documents can be saved directly to your Web server. The suite now includes Trellix 2.1, an easy-to-use graphics-based Web editor that maintains associations intranet-wide. This can prove useful for small companies that do not have access to HTML expertise. WordPerfect Office doesn't include a full-fledged PIM..." Description of WP's XML/SGML support, according to the Feature Guide: "WordPerfect Office 2000 supports open standards and programming interfaces, such as HTML, ODBC, Java, SGML, and XML. XML Capabilities: XML (eXtensible Markup Language) provides a platform and application-independent environment for defining document architecture and document markup. WordPerfect 9 lets users create, validate, and save XML documents in a familiar WYSIWYG environment. A structured tree view, shown in a separate window, provides an easy-to-read layout of the full document. WordPerfect automatically inserts and maintains tag pairs to create XML files. WordPerfect provides an editing environment that includes wizards, automatic element insertion, and automatic generation of documents, which makes document creation quick and easy. Users can customize menus, toolbars, and keyboard mapping to create their own working environment. WordPerfect 9 in corporates the Document Type Definition (DTD), layout information, and mapping files into a single WordPerfect template. SGML Editor: WordPerfect 9 lets users create SGML documents in a familiar WordPerfect environment. WordPerfect 9 lets users edit, markup text, and validate tags in SGML documents. Users can employ WordPerfect writing tools, such as Spell Check and QuickCorrect. In addition, users can hide SGML codes in the document window and use WordPerfect text formatting to make SGML documents easier to read on screen. The SGML Editor also includes the following: (1) Structured views of the document, providing a WYSIWYG view on one side of the screen and a tree view on the other. (2) Enhanced graphics, which let users import and export markups with the SGML document. (3) Document compare features. (4) Automatic mapping for International Standards Organization (ISO) characters during the DTD compiling process to map multinational characters to the appropriate characters in the SGML Editor. Manual character mapping does not fall within the ISO character sets. (5) Enhanced importing and exporting capabilities."

[June 25, 1999] "Four Reasons You're Gonna Love XML." By Jesse Berst (Editorial Director, ZDNet AnchorDesk). In ZDNet AnchorDesk (June 23, 1999). "XML is short for 'Extensible Markup Language.' It is based on the same basic principles as HTML, the lingua franca of the Web. But HTML is like a generic first-grade reader: simplistic and imprecise. In contrast, XML tags information with precise descriptions that open up new worlds of possibility. After being hyped heavily as a makeover for the Web, XML is starting to measure up. The consortiums and their giant backers are weighing in. Consider Oracle's announcement yesterday of XML components that interface to development languages including Java, C and C++. Consider that Microsoft is supporting XML broadly in Office 2000. And that IBM recently announced it will deliver an XML toolkit as part of its WebSphere Studio. Here are four real benefits XML will offer you in the next few years: (1) A better way to search. . . (2) A better way to distribute and track information. . ."

[June 25, 1999] "The Web Will Be Smart - From HTML to XML [Future Technology]." By Sebastian Rupley. In PC Magazine (June 22, 1999). "The Internet is a vast repository of information, but the Web will soon be able to anticipate as well as deliver the precise information you need. Let's face it, the Web is pretty dumb. This isn't surprising, considering that all the Web was originally designed to do was display text (and later graphics) on any computer. In the future, Web sites will know a lot more about you. They'll also know more about their own content and the content of other sites. For the Web to give you the information you want, sites must be able to understand other sites' content. Today, XML (for eXtensible Markup Language) is emerging as the technology to do just that.

[June 24, 1999] "Oracle Extends XML Capabilities." By Charles Babcock. In Inter@ctive Week (June 24, 1999). "Oracle is extending the eXtensible Markup Language capabilities of the Oracle8 and 8i database management system to include the ability to parse XML for database applications written in C and C++ as well as Java. The new XML parsers are available free on the Oracle Technology Network Website. Oracle also released XSQL Servlet, a Java-based capability of generating a servlet or short server command program to govern reading and writing of XML data in the Oracle database. It plays a role opposite to the XML parser, taking data already in XML format and converting it into data for relational rows and tables."

[June 24, 1999] "Oracle Aims to Stoke XML Adoption with Free Offer." By Mark Hammond. In PC Week [Online] (June 23, 1999). "Oracle Corp. says it will help drive adoption of Extensible Markup Language with a new set of XML components that ease access to and use of legacy data. During its iDevelop '99 conference in Boston Tuesday, the database giant said it has made available for free download a pair of XML parsers for C and C++. Situated on an application server, the parsers enable developers to access legacy information and transport it between applications using XML, Oracle officials said. They complement existing parsers for Java and Oracle's PL/SQL language."

[June 24, 1999] "Is XML the Way for Corporate Data." By Wylie Wong and Mike Ricciuti. In CNet News.com (June 24, 1999). "[Feature: News Analysis] "Extensible Markup Language (XML), already expected to reshape the business-to-business communications landscape, also holds the potential to become the de facto standard for corporate data integration, an area where other technologies have failed to deliver. In essence, XML may hold the promise of delivering what more complicated and established technologies--including the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), Enterprise Java Beans (EJBs), and Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM)--have not been able to do: give developers a simple, easy-to-use way to share data between computer systems from multiple vendors, said analysts and software makers."

[June 24, 1999] "Oracle XML Components Speak Most Languages." By Erich Luening. In CNet News.com (June 22, 1999). "Oracle today rolled out new XML components, offering interfaces to most major development languages, including Java, C, C ++, and PL/SQL. Available for free download from Oracle Technology Network, the new components allow developers to access information in legacy systems and transport it between business applications using XML. As XML has emerged as the de facto standard for describing data, its simplicity and broad industry adoption have made it the ideal choice for exchanging information between businesses, the company said." See the news entry.

[June 24, 1999] "Short Take: Y2K data testing tool gets XML support." By Wylie Wong. In CNet News.com (June 23, 1999). "Blackstone & Cullen has added XML support to its data management tool, so users can easily convert their legacy data into XML documents. Data Commander 2.3--a data testing tool for making legacy data Year 2000-compliant -- is available now and costs $2,000 for a workstation..." See the press release, "Data Commander 2.3 adds XML 1.0 support for automatic analysis, comparison, and conversion of complex flat-file data structures to eXtensible Markup Language."

[June 24, 1999] "Oracle Leverages XML to Link Disparate Applications." By Dana Gardner. In InfoWorld (June 22, 1999). "Oracle on Tuesday made available for free a series of Extensible Markup Language (XML) interfaces among popular programming languages that should ease the use of Oracle legacy data among and between applications. Announced at iDevelop 99 in Boston and available from Oracle's Technology Network at technet.oracle.com, the interfaces target programs written in Java, C, C++ and PL/SQL. Oracle XML Parser for C and Oracle XML Parser for C++ join Oracle's current parsers for Java and PL/SQL. The C and C++ components support both Document Object Model and Simple API for XML (SAX) interfaces, Oracle said. The parsers are for use on the Oracle Application Server for accessing data in Oracle8 and Oracle8i databases." See the news entry.

[June 24, 1999] "Open Source XML Application Server." By Dale Dougherty. From XML.com (June 23, 1999). "Planet 7 Technologies of Redmond, WA has released a beta version of its XML Application Server (XAS) under the Open Source licence. The XML Application Server is written in Java and requires a Java Virtual Machine. The XML Application Server allows XML documents to be shared and modified in real-time by multiple users whose interactions with the document become part of the document. It is intended for interactive, collaborative applications, especially where monitoring user activity in real-time is important."

[June 24, 1999] "Monitoring Updates with XML and Java. XSA (XML Software Autoupdate)." By Lisa Rein. From XML.com (June 23, 1999). "XSA is a Java-based tool for monitoring updates that uses XML to organize information about software products. . . Lars Marius Garshol, a graduate student at the Department of Informatics at the University of Oslo, developed XSA (XML Software Autoupdate) to help him maintain his Free XML Software list. Now XSA is being used by software vendors and developers get the word out about new products and updates. Over the course of its development, XSA has evolved into an alternative distribution network, connecting content providers with products and software they might not otherwise have ever come across. Currently, 29 vendors and developers are using this XSA-based polling system to provide information updates. In this article, we'll go through the steps required for software vendors and developers to participate, as well as how software list maintainers can implement their own XSA client-side system." See further details in the announcement for the XSA client.

[June 22, 1999] "Government Looks to RosettaNet to Cut Costs." By Nancy Dillon. In Computerworld (June 11, 1999). "If you think your supply chain is complex, consider the federal government. 'There are 600,000 items in the GSA [General Services Administration] catalog, 3 million in the Defense Agency's mall and another 130,000 items in the NASA catalog,' said Martin Wagner, associate administrator at the GSA's Office of Government-Wide Policy in Washington. At a RosettaNet conference here yesterday, Wagner said that GSA joined RosettaNet because it represents an opportunity to 'possibly save the taxpayers some money.' Efficiency gains should lead to lower product pricing, more vendors to choose from and faster time to market for the latest technologies." See also "RosettaNet XML Supply-chain Tests Begin" and the main entry, "RosettaNet."

[June 22, 1999] "Parsing and Sharing." By Charlie Heinemann. In extreme xml [Microsoft MSDN Column] (June 21, 1999). "Support for XML within products and applications makes XML viable. However, the true star of the show is the XML Standard itself. The XML Standard creates the opportunity for applications to ship data across the Web without concern for the platform on which the receiving application sits. The XML Standard enables interoperability between platforms and applications by allowing any application to interact with the data of another as long as that application can read in a text stream. [Conclusion:] XML is the glue that connects disparate systems across the Web. In the Web world (or even in the intranet of a large company), you do not have control over the applications and platforms that users run. Yet, you still want to be able to complete transactions between as many applications as possible. This means that you must be able to expose your data in ways that make it accessible by the largest number of applications. In the same vein, you must also be able to process the data that is generated by the largest number of applications. XML is not the most appropriate data format for all situations. However, it is the most appropriate data format if you are interested in shipping data across the Web, and if you are interested in making your data available across the Web via such protocols as HTTP."

[June 21, 1999] "From the Editor in Chief: New Web site brings new information to readers." By Sandy Reed. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 24 (June 14, 1999), page 71. "The InfoWorld Web site has a new look this week to go with a raft of new capabilities designed to make it more useful for both our print and our online readers. It has a new name, InfoWorld.com -- replacing InfoWorld Electric -- but the same URL, www.infoworld.com. The major changes include an improved search engine, a more accessible navigation system, additional research tools, and more versatile reader Forums. . . The enabling technology behind the new site is Extensible Markup Language, or XML. Complicating the task was our requirement that the system tie into the Quark Publishing System, which we use for the weekly print production of InfoWorld. Associate Managing Editor Ross Owens created a custom program that enables us to publish in print, to the Web site, or to both. And Publishing Systems Manager David Minehart worked to extend Quark's capabilities to ensure our XML tags would remain valid throughout the production process. Using XML tags for the content lets us create better packages of related material, such as special reports and themed sections, such as the On the Road reports from JavaOne this week and PC Expo next week."

[June 21, 1999] "ERP Woes." By Suzanne Hildreth. In Server/Workstation Expert Volume 10, Number 6 (June 1999), pages 58-63. "Where once a single, tightly integrated suite of enterprise applications seemed like the perfect solution, some companies are now finding that the tight integration is creating its own difficulties. . ." [Hope for the Long Haul - XML (pages 61-62)]

[June 21, 1999] "Trip Report: WWW8 in Toronto." By Mark Walter and Luke Cavanagh. In Seybold Report on Internet Publishing Volume 3, Number 10 (June, 1999), pages 21-26. "Held last month in Toronto, the Eighth International WWW Conference served as a touchstone for the W3C's agenda as it struggles to build consensus and standards in the midst of tremendous growth. Though they have a decidedly academic tone, with an emphasis on research and barely a nod to commercial interests, the international Web conferences often serve as milestones for Web standards. Standards represent industry consensus; they pave the rough trails of innovation in asphalt and concrete. On the Web, where innovation has been streaking forward at a breakneck pace, previous WWW conferences have placed stakes in the ground-the publishing of a new version of HTML, or the launch of a new initiative-that gave some, at least, a chance to pause and look around before plunging forward. This year's spring event, more reflective than ebullient, left two such markers: the release of the W3C's accessiblity guidelines and the publishing of the first working draft of XML Schema. In different ways, both efforts reflect the commitment of the W3C's director, Tim Berners-Lee, to help guide the evolution of the universal hypertext he created . . ."

[June 21, 1999] "E-Book Mania: PC-Based Products Jostle the Bandwagon. [PC-Based E-Books: A Market Overview.]" By Steve Edwards, Victor Votsch, and Mark Walter. In Seybold Report on Internet Publishing Volume 3, Number 10 (June, 1999), pages 1, 9-19. "The rise of hand-held e-books has sparked a resurgence in PC-based electronic books, and a wave of vendors looking to sell e-books over the Web. We profile the offerings of six new vendors and update readers on three related developments: the Clio/Tripad notebooks, emerging e-book standards, and the latest deals by hand-held e-book vendors. . . Two vendor-neutral standards are under development for e-books. The first, Open E-Book (OEB), is a file format for the books, independent of any specific reading device. The initial draft is expected later this month. The second, Electronic Book Exchange (EBX), is a specification covering e-book distribution and copyright protection. Its first draft is expected later this year. . ." Some portion of this article is online from XML.com. For other information on OEB, see "Open eBook Initiative."

[June 21, 1999] "Poet upgrades its XML-aware content management system. XML extensions to Cold Fusion; improved UI, authoring and multilingual support. " By Mark Walter. In Seybold Report on Internet Publishing Volume 3, Number 10 (June, 1999), page 31. "Poet Software has improved its Web publishing facilities by implementing XML extensions to Allaire's Cold Fusion as part of the 2.0 upgrade to Poet's Content management System. The upgrade also adds a graphical user interface for component-level content management, plug-ins for authoring tools and support for multlingual publishing. The Web publishing component, called Web Factory, has changed from a homegrown application into one that interacts with Cold Fusion, the popular middleware product from Allaire. Poet has written 13 extension tags to the Cold Fusion Markup Language that provide component-level navigation, browsing and exporting of XML document structures from within the Poet CMS. . ." See also the press release, ""POET Software to Ship Version 2.0 of its Content Management Suite. First to Bring XML Content Server to Market Now Expands Functionality."

[June 21, 1999] "RVC de-Quarking tool helps Thomson publish to the Web Atomik extracts XML to a database, outputs HTML on the fly. [Thomson is first to buy RVC's Atomik Quark extraction tool.]" By Mark Walter. In Seybold Report on Internet Publishing Volume 3, Number 10 (June, 1999), page 33. "A new system for extracting XML-tagged text from Quark documents and publishing them on the Web was announced late last month by a small UK Web consultancy firm. RVC, a start-up of five people, announced the release Atomik-XT at the Magazines '99 show in London. Its first customer is Thomson Financial, which publishes International Financing Review. Atomik XT, priced at $20,000, has several modules. Atomik Archiver is an automated program that extracts text from XPress documents, marks up the text in XML and loads the tagged text into an object database. An XML editor, written in Java and connected to the database through a CORBA interface, is supplied to enable editorial staff to correct or amend the resulting XML data. . ." ['Atomik uses XML (eXtensible Markup Language) to automate the process of creating fully indexed and searchable web sites from content stored in QuarkXpress documents. Until now, publishers wishing to create online archives of their magazines have been hampered by the difficulty of extracting content from desk-top publishing file formats, such as QuarkXpress. Using Atomik can reduce the time spent each week/month updating a web site from several days to just a few minutes. . . ']

[June 21, 1999] "First Look: GoLive 4 for Mac, Windows." By Peter Dyson. In Seybold Report on Internet Publishing Volume 3, Number 10 (June, 1999), page 20. The Mac-based WYSIWYG page editor has been ported to Windows and there are a few new features, but this is primarily the `Adobification' release. . . . [XML ready]. GoLive 4.0 uses a tag database for code generation and validation. A minimal DTD is included, and users can import others. GoLive's internal code generator is driven by a database of tags, which initially contains a minimal DTD. More elaborate structures can be imported. At first glance, it seems that GoLive will be highly configurable; but we haven't yet experimented with this feature. In this release, the real value of the change in underlying architecture has not been brought to the user interface." See the press release, "Adobe Delivers Adobe GoLive 4.0 for Windows. For the First Time Windows Customers Reap the Benefits of GoLive's Powerful, Visual Web Design Capabilities."

[June 21, 1999] "Guarding content. Xerox Enters the Rights Management Arena with ContentGuard. ContentGuard offers persistent protection with a small footprint." By Victor Votsch. In Seybold Report on Internet Publishing Volume 3, Number 10 (June, 1999), pages 27-28. [The Latest Word] "Xerox jumps into digital rights management with an end-to-end suite for protecting documents. ContentGuard, which was developed at Xerox's PARC research facility, also differs from most rights-management products in its server-based operation. It does not require the reader to install any client-side software in order to access documents. A small rights file is sent over the Web with the content. ContentGuard generates on-the-fly Self-Protecting Documents (SPD) that contain information on access rights. SPD files are encrypted and contain information specific to the user and the rights associated with a document. The SPD can determine the status of a user's request to upgrade his rights (print in addition to view) by checking with a master record on a secure Web server." See "Digital Property Rights Language (DPRL)."

[June 21, 1999] "Tim Berners-Lee Keynotes WWW8." By Dianne Kennedy. In XML Files: The XML Magazine Issue 15 (June, 1999). [Report/summary for the WWW8 presentation of May 12, 1999.] "Berners-Lee outlined the events of what he believes to be the first decade of the Web. . . [And] What's Next? According to Berners-Lee, the goal for 10 years is for the Web to become 'Intercreative Space.' The Web should allow one to be creative with others. As you read today, so can you should be able to write in the future. If you notice a connection, make a link and collaborate with others. Our new W3C standards provide a foundation. But we need a new generation of products and infrastructure to support this goal. Moving forward has challenges in a number of areas. . . " See also the presentation slides for "Challenges of the second decade" (WWW8 Keynote).

[June 21, 1999] "Industry Fragments as it Promotes Use of XML." By Dianne Kennedy. In XML Files: The XML Magazine Issue 15 (June, 1999). "Recently two separate efforts to promote the use of XML on the Web were announced [XML.ORG, BizTalk]. Ironically, the already bitterly divided high-tech sector seems even more clearly divided by these very similiar efforts to 'accelerate the widespread adoption of Extensible Markup Language (XML) for electronic commerce and application integration' . . . The elephants are clearly Microsoft and Sun. So in the end, the ultimate question is whether these two "elephants" can somehow find a way to work together to enable the business activities of us 'ants'. The good news is that both of the competing industry groups recognize that XML alone is not enough for commerce to flourish on the Web. The availability of common tag sets (vocabularies or schemas) with clearly understood semantics is critical to facilitate business applications. Each Web faction is attempting to create a environment condusive to the rapid growth of Web-based business, yet because they (Microsoft / Sun) rarely cooperate outside the confines of the W3C, each is fostering XML in their own way. Each has made the mistake of championing a different standards organization to operate with or within. The Sun and Microsoft camps at times succeeded in working together for the common good. They certainly have done that as members of the W3C. But it seems that establishing the XML clearing house and repository is not within the scope of W3C. So they cannot work together in that forum. . ." See "The BizTalk Framework" and "XML.ORG - The XML Industry Portal."

[June 21, 1999] "Industry Analysts Evaluate ICE." By Dianne Kennedy. In XML Files: The XML Magazine Issue 15 (June, 1999). - "ICE Executive Summit: GCARI and the ICE Authoring Group held the first of the ICE Summit in New York at the Marriott Eastside on May 17. The two day business and technical summit was attended by 60 leading executives representing publishers and others interested in making the shift to doing business on the Web. The opening keynote presentation was provided by Don DePalma from Sensible Systems (formerly from Forrester Group). Don provided the group with a brief introduction to ICE and the business rationale for this specification. . . GCARI and the ICE Authoring Group will be holding the second in a series of ICE Executive Summits at the Drake Hotel in Chicago on July 11 and July 12. You can find more information and register for this summit online." On ICE, see Information and Content Exchange (ICE) Protocol.

[June 21, 1999] "Bluestone Software hones its IPO axe." By R. Scott Raynovich . In Red Herring [Insider] (June 16, 1999). "Some companies like to extend the breadth of their financing in the mezzanine round that usually precedes an IPO. Bluestone Software has taken this idea to the extreme: a $25 million third round of financing, announced on Monday, that includes 16 new venture capital firms. . . Several of the company's new products were demonstrated this week at the JavaOne trade show in San Francisco. These include Sapphire/Web 6.0, which now includes the ability to upgrade the software while it's still running, as well as a suite of XML tools, including a visual development product."

[June 18, 1999] "E-Book Standards Edge Forward." By Victor Votsch. From XML.com (June 17, 1999). "Two vendor-neutral standards are under development for e-books. The first, Open E-Book (OEB), is a file format for the books, independent of any specific reading device. The initial draft is expected later this month. The second, Electronic Book Exchange (EBX), is a specification covering e-book distribution and copyright protection. Its first draft is expected later this year. The OEB 1.0 spec attempts to create a set of markup tools that could be applied universally to a wide range of books. The markup for the book itself consists of HTML 3.2 tags (with the addition of the 'span' tag), with CSS 1.0 style sheets, all specified in an XML document type definition. Associated with the book are XML-encoded metadata that make use of the Dublin Core taxonomy. . . In parallel with OEB, a second group of about 40 companies [Electronic Book Exchange - EBX] is developing a standard method of copyrighting digital books that are distributed over the Internet. The intent is for EBX to support both PDF and Open E-Book formats." [Reprinted from The Seybold Report on Internet Publishing Volume 3, No. 10.] For other information on OEB, see "Open eBook Initiative."

[June 18, 1999] "Group Builds Multilateral Support for Commercial Language -- OASIS Nourishes XML Drive." By Nicolas Mokhoff. In Electronic Engineering Times [Online] Issue 1065 (June 14, 1999) [Systems & Software]. "The HyperText Markup Language (HTML) made the Web the world's library. Now the Extensible Markup Language (XML) is out to make the Web the world's commercial and financial hub. At the first XMLOne [conference], an international users conference held here last month, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) announced the creation of XML.Org (www.xml.org), the first global XML industry portal to be operated by a nonprofit corporation devoted to open information exchange. More than 20 corporations, organizations and individual experts have rallied to voice their support for the group's formation. Even Microsoft Corp., which has been pursuing its own XML standardization efforts, has joined the XML industry consortium, which is also supported by IBM and Sun Microsystems. The multipartisan support has eased fears about a platform-based splintering of the XML market. Microsoft and OASIS had been competing to establish industry consensus and provide a forum for XML definition."

[June 18, 1999] "'Smart' Data is XML's Edge." By [Staff]. In Electronic Engineering Times [Online] Issue 1065 (June 14, 1999). "XML is the markup language of choice for analyzing, extracting, sorting, styling and customizing dynamic information to create a personalized Web experience for the end user. HTML tells how the data should look, but XML tells you what it means. . .Unlike HTML, where text is just text to be rendered in a uniform way, XML can control the rendition, allowing data processing, document processing or both, simultaneously."

[June 18, 1999] "XML After 1.0: You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet." By James Tauber. In IEEE Internet Computing Volume 3, No. 3 (May/June 1999), pages 100-102. "The prevalence of XML in discussions of the Web and its application to such diverse application domains in the past year have almost eclipsed the fact that the 1.0 specification, approved as a W3C Recommendation in February 1998, is only the first part of the 'structured documents' originally envisioned. The specifications for two more parts -- hypertext link types and a stylesheet language -- are nearing completion, and the W3C chartered new working groups last year to generate new members of the family. Some of XML's future features will help fulfill the original dream of structured Web documents and internationalized media-independent publishing; others will make it easier to use XML for emerging applications. . .Ironically, it is perhaps because XML 1.0 says and doesn't so little that people are using it to do so much. It is rapidly becoming the foundation for most new (and many old) ways of interchanging information. Equally ironic, XML 1.0 doesn't technically do anything that hasn't been possible with SGML for more than a decade. (Perhaps, as suggested by some, the letters XML just sound sexier.) In this column, I will survey parts of the total XML picture that will likely be completed this year. Some of these will fulfill the original dream of structured Web documents and internationalized media-independent publishing; others will make it easier to use XML for emerging applications that weren't part of the original focus. But first, it is worth looking at what the language we have now actually does to standardize information interchange. . ."

[June 17, 1999] "Web Application Server -- Bluestone Software Sapphire/Web Release 6." By [Staff]. In Network Computing Issue 1012 (June 17, 1999). "Bluestone Software's Sapphire/Web Release 6 application server adds features such as increased XML support and enhanced failover speed and functionality for electronic-commerce Internet sites. A QoS (Quality of Service) facility fosters the imposition of different classes of service and resource prioritization for different classifications of users. These service levels can be reset dynamically while the user is visiting the site. Control over both the role-based security model and thread pooling is more granular in this version."

[June 16, 1999] "XML Protocols: Providing a Complete XML-Based Data Interchange Solution." An Innovision White Paper. June, 1999. "The XML Protocol white paper defines and clarifies the concept of XML Protocols. In addition, it provides an in-depth look at Innovision's Nepal XP technology that provides developers with a set of enterprise XML tools for modeling and creating XML Protocol languages as well as building servers and thin-clients that exchange information using XML protocols. XML's use of markup to organize and tag information yields structured information that is ripe for interchange between two or more parties, but XML itself stops short of specifying how this interchange is to take place. This is where XML Protocols step in to take XML to the next level: by providing for the robust, reliable interchange of XML-encoded information via the Internet. The XML Protocol concept augments the power of XML with the following features: (1) Data Abstraction [XML Protocols introduce the notion of a Protocol-Specific Object Model (PSOM) for conceptualizing the information that is to be interchanged. This relieves developers of the need to know the details of XML and provides a more concrete data model than existing XML tools do. This allows developers to quickly create reliable, high-performance XML applications], (2) Data Validation, (3) Out-of-Band Data, (4) Interchange Models, (5) Protocol Management."

[June 16, 1999] "Migrating Web Sites to XML. AT&T's Move from HTML Results in Arbortext, Documentum Alliance." By Christa Degnan. In PC Week [Online] Volume 16, Number 24 (June 14, 1999), page 36. Arbortext Inc. and Documentum Inc. have formed a strategic alliance to integrate the two companies' document technologies to make XML easier to use in enterprise information management. The arrangement is the first in a new partnership program being launched by Arbortext this month and is the result of work being conducted at AT&T Corp. AT&T is in the preliminary stages of migrating all its sites, both internal and external, to XML from HTML. To date, AT&T's Internet, intranet and extranet pages have been developed through a proprietary publishing process and Microsoft Corp.'s Office and FrontPage tools."

[June 16, 1999] "Sun Releases Java 2 Enterprise Edition." By John Webster. In Internet World (June 14, 1999), pages 1, 17. "At this week's JavaOne Developer Conference in San Francisco, Sun Microsystems Inc. will ratchet the technology up another notch with the official unveiling of Java 2 Enterprise Edition and demonstrations of Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) 1.1. According to Gartner Group projections, 60 percent of all new IT business development within companies will be using Java by 2004. XML (eXtensible Markup Language) will also play a role as the standard for 'deployment descriptors' used to configure EJB components. According to Jeremy Burton, vice president of tools marketing at Oracle, XML helps the server 'remember' changes that users make to their applications. 'XML is important to the EJB spec,' he said, 'because more customers are buying off-the-shelf Web-based applications, and those have to be customized to their business'."

[June 16, 1999] "IBM Injects XML, Java Messaging Support Into MQSeries." By Ted Smalley Bowen. In InfoWorld (June 15, 1999). "IBM this week provided updates of its plans to support emerging Internet programming standards, and underscored new features that are working their way into the MQSeries product line. As outlined Monday during IBM's Java strategy briefing at JavaOne in San Francisco, and detailed Tuesday in a teleconference with reporters, Big Blue's software group is adding support for the Extensible Markup Language (XML) and the Java Message Service (JMS) to its MQSeries line. MQSeries includes a base enterprise messaging platform, a message broker, and rules engine (MQSeries Integrator), and a workflow program (MQSeries Workflow). IBM touts MQSeries for a wide range of application integration, workflow, business process automation, and related messaging tasks. MQSeries support of the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C)'s XML meta data language, due later this year and next, uses XML at the transport level, in inter-application communications, and for message transformation -- such as translating legacy Cobol or C++ messages to XML or vice versa, according to Bill Reedy, vice president of transaction systems for the IBM software group." See the announcement: "IBM makes Business integration easier. New Releases of MQSeries Family to Feature XML and Java-based Messaging Capabilities."

[June 15, 1999] "Convertir XML en HTML utilizando XSLT." By Joaquin Bravo Montero. In Taller Web (June 1999). "Este es el primer capítulo de una serie de artículos en los que iremos estudiando qué posibilidades y herramientas existen hoy en día para convertir un documento XML en HTML y cómo visualizarlo en un navegador." See also the associated Web site with XML resources (XML en castellano).

[June 15, 1999] "DrLove : Document Resource Locations." By Rick Jelliffe [Computing Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan]. May 1999. "This is a discussion draft for Document Resource Locations for the consideration of the W3C I18N IG and other interested W3C groups. It comes out of previous work known as XCS (Extensible Character Set). This paper, Document Resource Locations, proposes a mechanism to link XML and XHTML documents to arbitrary resources. The benefits of being able to attacth arbitrary resources to a document are well-known. The Macintosh was largely based on this idea: Macintosh files have a resource fork as well as a data fork. However, for efficiency on the WWW, bundling data and resources together is not practical; indeed linking can be regarded as the opposite of bundling."

[June 15, 1999] "Sun's Bill Joy talks about Jini, Java, and the competition." By Ephraim Schwartz . In InfoWorld (June 14, 1999). "As a preview to Sun Microsystems' JavaOne conference opening Tuesday at the Moscone Center here, the company announced Monday morning that both Java and Jini training courses will now be available via the Internet. . . On XML and Jini, Joy said the best marriage is when XML and Java are used together, with XML as data descriptive technology and Jini to include the meaning with the data. 'Data alone can be misinterpreted,' Joy said. 'Combining XML with Jini for business process into a JavaBean would make the most sense'."

[June 15, 1999] "IBM Opens MQSeries With XML." By Ellis Booker. In InternetWeek Issue 769 (June 14, 1999), pages 1, 57. "IBM is adding XML support to its widely installed MQSeries middleware, opening the door to standards-based integration among disparate applications. IBM this week will detail plans to add XML support to both the core MQSeries message-queueing software and the MQSeries Integrator message broker. MQSeries Integrator, unveiled earlier this year, lets customers route, translate and exchange messages between applications based on the content of the message, not only the message's header field. Version 2.0, due in the fourth quarter, will add the ability to transform a message in transit between applications into XML. This function is now performed with predefined, application-specific data formats using technology from New Era of Networks (NEON) Inc."

[June 15, 1999] "Sun Embraces Standards For Server Management." By Tim Wilson and Jeffrey Schwartz. In InternetWeek Issue 769 (June 14, 1999), pages 1, 55. "Sun Microsystems is making it easier for IT administrators to monitor and control Sun Solaris and Windows NT servers with standards-based management tools. Those same standards will be supported in a repository for Solaris management information. Sun will deliver these capabilities by supporting in Solaris the Distributed Management Task Force's Web-Based Enterprise Management guidelines. WBEM defines standards for formatting, storing and exchanging systems and network management information. DMTF is a consortium that includes Sun, as well as competitors Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Microsoft. A key element of Solaris WBEM Services is support for the XML/HTTP specification, which will let management applications work equally well with Unix or Windows clients. XML/HTTP defines a method for encoding management data in XML and transmitting it via HTTP. The specification could be finalized at this week's meeting of the DMTF. XML also eliminates the need for management vendors to choose between competing object languages such as Microsoft's COM and Sun's Java-based RMI." See "DMTF Common Information Model (CIM)."

[June 15, 1999] "New Products Integrate Java, XML." By Ellis Booker. In InternetWeek Issue 769 (June 14, 1999), page 9. "Leading the news at the JavaOne show this week in San Francisco will be Sun Microsystems' official unveiling of the Java2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE), which defines a set of standard, service-level Java APIs. J2EE lets Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) on different application servers interoperate across networks. That's because J2EE will use the standard Corba/IIOP communications protocol. Extensible Markup Language (XML) will also be in force at JavaOne. Reportedly, an XML API is one of the products that will be bundled under the J2EE umbrella along with the Java Transaction API, Java Message Service and Java Server Pages. XML is being proffered by many vendors as an optional integration mechanism-and arguably easier than encapsulating business logic in JavaBeans-for reaching legacy data or as a handy vehicle for linking business applications."

[June 14, 1999] "XML App Eases Integration Of E-Commerce Data." By Richard Karpinski. In InformationWeek (June 14, 1999). "On Monday OnDisplay will roll out CenterStage, a set of XML-based applications that let users integrate apps and exchange data between them. The CenterStage suite consists of five applications: eContent, eIntegrate, eNotify, eBizXchange, and eSyndicate. The suite's highlights include the ability to integrate with a variety of back-office and legacy systems; aggregate data from those systems in a variety of formats, leveraging XML technology; and share customized cuts of the content and data with a wide variety of trading partners." See "OnDisplay Unveils The CenterStage Product Suite For Powering E-Business Portals."

[June 29, 1999] "Supply-Chain Project Enters Pilot Phase." By Richard Karpinski. In InternetWeek Issue 769 (June 14, 1999), page 7. "RosettaNet, the tech-industry effort to standardize e-business processes, began pilot tests last week with 30 companies. The group, made up of all the major PC-industry players, as well as other members of the IT supply chain, said the participating companies have committed to make use of the standards by Feb. 2, 2000, the so-called eConcert Readiness Day. The standards effort, spearheaded by group leader and Ingram Micro executive Fadi Chehade, defined so-called partner interface processes (PIPs) between member companies. The PIPs define how transactions are conducted up and down the IT supply chain, including between manufacturers, software publishers, distributors, resellers, integrators and end users."

[June 14, 1999] "RosettaNet Jumps on XML Bandwagon. [Updated Article]" By Stannie Holt and Matthew Nelson. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 24 (June 14, 1999), page 8. "Dozens of PC makers, suppliers, and buyers involved in the RosettaNet e-commerce standards initiative have committed to using eConcert -- the group's new e-commerce language based on Extensible Markup Language (XML) -- by next Feb. 2. They made their announcement at a press conference here Thursday. However, one RosettaNet member, CommerceOne, thinks the eConcert project is being too timid in clinging to older, EDI-type syntax. The eConcert project is intended to help trading partners collaborate more effectively by aligning not just their definitions of 'price,' 'ship date,' 'motherboard,' etc., but by aligning the ways they do business through so-called partner interface processes (PIPs), said RosettaNet CEO Fadi Chehade. The RosettaNet nonprofit group includes makers of chips, components, and PCs, as well as VARs, retailers, integrators, major buyers such as the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), delivery services, and e-commerce or enterprise resource planning software vendors. A total of 39 companies or agencies are committed to going live with RosettaNet PIPs by 'eConcert Readiness Day' on Feb. 2, 2000, the group announced." See also: "RosettaNet."

[June 12, 1999] "JavaOne: New Products Integrate Java, XML." By Ellis Booker. In CMP TechWeb Technology News (June 10, 1999). "Leading the news at the JavaOne show next week in San Francisco will be SunMicrosystems' official unveiling of the Java2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE), which defines a set of standard, service-level Java APIs. XML will also be in force at JavaOne. Reportedly, an XML API is one of the products that will be bundled under the J2EE umbrella along with the Java Transaction API, Java Message Service, and Java Server Pages. XML is being proffered by many vendors as an optional integration mechanism -- and arguably easier than encapsulating business logic in JavaBeans -- for reaching legacy data or as a handy vehicle for linking business applications. One company exploiting XML is Novera Software Inc., which will debut version 4.5 of its Novera Java middleware product."

[June 12, 1999] "Financial XML Standard Proposed." By Bruce Caldwell. In CMP TechWeb Technology News (June 11, 1999). "A proposed standard for wholesale financial-services transactions on the Internet was releasedyesterday by J.P.Morgan & Co. and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Based on XML -- the rapidly growing Internet standard for data sharing between applications -- the Financial Products Markup Language is designed to handle integration of Internet services such as electronic trading and confirmations, risk analysis, and the exchange of market data. J.P. Morgan is working on a suite of client services that employ the standard." See "Financial Products Markup Language."

[June 11, 1999] "How to Promote Organic Plurality on the WWW." By Rick Jelliffe [Academia Sinica Computing Centre, Taipei, Taiwan]. June 11, 1999. In order to build an open WWW that provides a level-playing field such that innovators can support it: "The concrete suggestions are these: 1) To prevent 'data kidnap', every new technology or application class introduced onto the WWW must be preceded by a mechanism, as an intermediate layer, to allow alternatives to that technology. 2) To prevent 'workflow kidnap', that mechanism should have a phase attribute. 3) To prevent 'data lockout', names should be fixed for a schema: vocabularies that require a schema with to check names based on regular expressions should be deprecated."

[June 11, 1999] "eXtensible Server Pages (XSP) Layer 1." By Stefano Mazzocchi and Ricardo Rocha. From the Java Apache Cocoon project. The document "specifies an XML namespace that addresses a complete region of web publishing, that of logic-based, dynamic content generation. This language is introduced to fill an existing gap between the W3C specifications and working draft and the increasing demand for a flexible server side approach based on the new XML paradigm. [The draft thus] specifies both an XML document type defintion and a development methodology to generate dynamic XML by server side processing of client's requests. Such a specification is useful to define an open and standard way to develop and maintain dynamic XML server pages. The technology described in this document was designed to complete the XML-based publishing framework defined by the Cocoon Project and it's mainly targetted on this project, even if the final goal of this effort is to submit a request to a standard body (such as W3C) for final recomandation." [local archive copy]

[June 11, 1999] "Building a Better Metasearch Engine. [Applied XML Tutorial.]" By Ralf Westphal. From XML.com (June 08, 1999). "This two-part tutorial demonstrates how XML can be used to improve how search engines work. It shows how to automate retrieval of search results and when those results are available in XML, instead of HTML, how much more easily they can be organized and displayed for users. This demo requires IE 5 because the XML processing is done on the client side. [Conclusion:] This is how easy the future of metasearch engines could look with XML. Some XML here, a bit of XML DOM there, a spoon full of XSL, plus a trifle of XQL. It's all standards and drafts, little coding, mostly declarations. So, be cool and brush up your database sites with a programmatic query interface returning XML data."

[June 11, 1999] "Benchmarking XML Parsers on Solaris." By Steven Marcus. From XML.com (June 08, 1999). 'How do various XML parsers perform on the Solaris platform, compared to Linux? In particular, do the Java-based XML parsers have any edge on Solaris?' "Clark Cooper's Benchmarking XML Parsers article is an even-handed attempt to compare the relative performance of XML parsing using C, Java, Perl and Python. After reading the article [ . . .], I was curious if the results reported would be similar to those obtained using Sun's Solaris-optimized Java virtual machine. Solaris is the 'showcase' environment for Java -- and Sun claims to have spent much time and money optimizing Java for its platform. Table 1 summarizes the results [for: C-Expat, Java-xp, Java-xml4j, Java-xml-tr2, Perl, Python]. . ."

[June 11, 1999] "The XSL Debate: One Expert's View." By Norman Walsh. From XML.com (June 09, 1999). 'Norm addresses the recent debate about the merits of XSL. As a member of the XSL committee, he said he found the debate disappointing because it was polarizing. He describes the fundamental principles behind XSL and why it is necessary for a fully functional Web. . .' "Recently, there has been some debate about the merits of XSL (the extensible style language, one of the original family of XML standards). This debate has taken place on several mailing lists and, most recently, was the featured topic on XML.com. My own experience with structured markup and stylesheets is extensive. I've written stylesheets using FOSIs, CSS, DSSSL, and XSL. Before my SGML days, I wrote them in TeX and LaTeX, I dabbled in Troff and my own home-grown formatters generating raw PostScript, and even an old IBM mainframe system called simply "Script". Several people have asked my opinion about the XSL debate, so here it is. What follows are my own observations and my personal feelings about the issue. Mostly, I find the whole debate rather disappointing. Disappointing because much of the debate seems to be framed in the most polarizing language possible and hardly seems designed to engender serious discussion. . ."

[June 10, 1999] "XML Development in Java. It's All in the Beans." By Maneesh Sahu. In Web Techniques (June 1999) [June 1999 Special Issue XML & Java: An Obvious Match.] "JavaBeans makes it easy to write XML applications. Maneesh shows you how to build one, and what's required to process XML documents in a Java program. Java is witnessing an increased integration with XML in enterprise application development. XML data is being processed within Java programs to produce data stores, messaging mechanisms, and complex views. When processing XML in Java, there's a set of tasks that is common to any application. First, we'll look at building an XML application from scratch to see what's required to process XML documents in a Java program. Then we'll use a set of functions that is available as XML JavaBeans. In fact, XML JavaBeans not only make it easier for programmers to write applications, they also make it possible for nonprogrammers to assemble nontrivial XML applications."

[June 10, 1999] "Why XML is Meant for Java. Exploring the XML/Java Connection." By Matthew Fuchs, Ph.D. In Web Techniques (June 1999) [June 1999 Special Issue XML & Java: An Obvious Match.] "Historically, there are interesting similarities between Java and XML -- socially, philosophically, and architecturally. But will the relationship last, or be upset by contenders such as Perl and Python? I'll examine three important aspects of the Java/XML relationship. First, I'll look at the actual reasons for Java's success with XML, and if there is some hidden affinity between them. Then, I'll briefly discuss two popular programming models for manipulating XML in Java. If you use Java for manipulating XML, you'll probably choose one of these. Thirdly, there are a couple of significant developments on the horizon: the decision to provide a standard Java API for manipulating XML and the current work on developing a next-generation schema language for XML -- both of which bolster the Java/XML relationship. Finally, I'll say a word or two on the future of this alliance."

[June 10, 1999] "XML Integration Platforms. Anatomy of an XML Server." By Bob Bickel. In Web Techniques (June 1999) [June 1999 Special Issue XML & Java: An Obvious Match.] "You're probably quite familiar with the design of a Web server. Bob acquaints you with XML servers and how they make it easier to write XML applications. The XML server is emerging as an important integration platform for developing applications that create/send and receive/process XML. This article will look at the design of an XML server and how it simplifies the task of writing XML applications. First, let's distinguish XML servers from something most of us are already familiar with -- Web servers. A Web server responds to user requests via HTTP and delivers HTML documents; it can also manage the interactions between a user and a back-end application via CGI or other application programming interfaces. An XML server is similar to a Web server in that you could use a browser to retrieve an XML document from it. But there are two things that make an XML server different: First, it provides a standard application interface for processing XML-based information and second, it provides a variety of communication alternatives for passing the XML documents to and from the XML server. An XML server, which can receive, interpret, and generate XML documents, is really designed to communicate with other applications or other servers, not with users. The XML server can be used to automate the interchange of information between different applications, or between different organizations. . ."

[June 10, 1999] "SQL-Based XML Structured Data Access." By Michael M. David. In Web Techniques (June 1999) [June 1999 Special Issue XML & Java: An Obvious Match.] "XML's strengths are in representing heirarchical information while SQL is better at processing data in rows and columns. Michael helps you understand how to combine the two. SQL and XML seem to have distinctly different strengths. XML is used to represent highly structured hierarchical information while SQL is intended for processing data represented as rows and columns in a relational database. Hierarchical data structures are excellent for organizing data because they have a singular, unambiguous point of view, making their semantics very powerful. Relational databases, on the other hand, are useful because they allow many different data-structure formations to be created dynamically from the same data. Because each is important, transforming relational data into a hierarchical structure will let us create XML documents from a database. We also want to do the reverse, which will let us import XML documents into a database. Using ANSI SQL's newer outer join operation, we can perform these transformations between relational data and XML."

[June 10, 1999] "Database Developer: Modeling, Metadata, and XML." By Ken North. In Web Techniques (June 1999) [June 1999 Special Issue XML & Java: An Obvious Match.] "Ken North takes a broad look at XML and its role in data modeling, and within the background of the many recent industry initiatives. The two previous columns in this space dealt with a cookbook approach to database development. This month I hope to provide enough information for you to decide whether to learn Object-Role Modeling (ORM), the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and the eXtensible Markup Language (XML). UML and ORM are obviously modeling technologies, but where does XML fit into the picture? Why did I include XML with two obvious modeling technologies? XML is more than a document markup language -- it's a solution for content modeling and creating standards for content."

[June 10, 1999] "Patterns in XSL [Beyond HTML]." By Michael Floyd. In Web Techniques (June 1999) [June 1999 Special Issue XML & Java: An Obvious Match.] Michael Floyd shows you how to use XSL patterns to locate objects within the document tree. "Last month I showed how you can assemble a workbench of XML tools that together will let you serve XML documents from your Web site. One of the tools on that workbench, XML Enabler, is a Java servlet that lets you map an XSL style sheet to a specific browser. This, in turn, lets you attach a style sheet to an XML document that's capable of generating HTML specific to that browser's capabilities. Imagine being able to position a DIV block and have it look the same in Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 and in Netscape Navigator 4, or to be able to render an XML document in any browser, including Lynx. The strength in delivering such documents, as you'll see, comes from the eXtensible Style Language (XSL). There's a lot to XSL, so this month, I'd like to show how you can use patterns to locate objects within the document tree. From there, you'll be able to specify template rules that let you format these objects."

[June 10, 1999] "XML's Achilles Heel [The Last Page]." By Dale Dougherty. In Web Techniques (June 1999) [June 1999 Special Issue XML & Java: An Obvious Match.] "Editorial Director, Dale Dougherty tells the tale of XML's Achilles Heel. SGML provides the document type definition (DTD) as a formal mechanism for defining tag sets for different kinds of documents. A DTD doesn't entirely solve the problem of semantics but it's useful documentation for which tags are possible and in what combinations they might be used. (DTDs themselves need to be documented to describe what the tags are intended to represent.) SGML experts thought that DTDs would be created by industry trade groups made up of domain specialists. This made sense in theory but often not in practice. DTDs have become the Achilles heel of SGML, and now XML. It's a big question for most users: Which DTD should I use?"

[June 10, 1999] "Computer Industry Integrates Info-exchange." By Tim Clark. In CNEt News.com (June 10, 1999). "A consortium of major computer industry players today outlined an ambitious schedule for implementing new standards for exchanging information among suppliers, manufacturers, and computer buyers. RosettaNet aims to have protocols for 75-100 types of communications ready to implement by February 2, 2000. Along the way, it has two interim deadlines -- one later this month for three pilots to be completed, and the other in August, when five more are due." See XML details in "RosettaNet"

[June 10, 1999] "Progress Eyes App Outsourcing, Java Messaging Services." By Dana Gardner. In InfoWorld (June 10, 1999). "Progress Software plans to employ emerging Java and Extensible Markup Language (XML) standards to unite its Apptivity and Progress servers, while positioning its existing and future products as platforms for application service providers (ASPs). In the last quarter of this year, Progress will deliver Vader, or Apptivity Server 4.0, an Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB)-, XML-, and Java Messaging Service (JMS)- enabled server that will set the stage for Vader+ in 2000, the company said earlier this month. JMS is an emerging standard that will be introduced as part of the Java2, Enterprise Edition set of specifications next week at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco. When it officially arrives in December, it will offer a cross-platform message queuing alternative to IBM's MQSeries and Microsoft's MSMQ middleware."

[June 10, 1999] "A 'Rosetta Stone' for the Web? The XML Lingo Could Make it Easier to Find and Use Data." By Neil Gross and Michael Moeller. In BusinessWeek [Online] (June 14, 1999). "Miracle that it is, the World Wide Web is not without shortcomings. Mind-numbing delays and irrelevant search results are enough to try the patience of the most saintly Web surfers. And E-business companies have a long litany of woes, ranging from security problems to difficulties in swapping data across the Net. . . For XML to perform as promised, there must be agreement on the tags used within various markets and interest areas. While XML's basic language was standardized last year by the World Wide Web Consortium, the tags that will be used to define specific data for banking, telecommunications, retailing, and other areas are still up for grabs. But software rivals aren't waiting. IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun Microsystems -- plus a host of E-business startups such as Ariba Technologies and Commerce One -- are all trumpeting their unique expertise in XML. So the technology is already starting to fracture. Without better coordination, warns Timothy S. Sloane, an analyst with Boston's Aberdeen Group, the whole idea of universal standards 'could drift into never-never land.' On May 25, a Boston-based standards group called OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) tried to draw a line against fragmentation. It created a central clearinghouse on the Web, called XML.org, to coordinate XML news and proposals for tags. Unfortunately, Microsoft Corp. had the same idea. One day before XML.org went live, Microsoft unveiled BizTalk.org as the main repository not only for its own XML tags and products but also for those of its partners in E-business, such as Ariba and Commerce One. . ." See also: 'TABLE: Activities That Beg for XML'. More on XML.ORG at "XML.ORG - The XML Industry Portal."

[June 10, 1999] "XML - The Future Markup Language?" By Anand Nandkumar. In The Hindu [Online edition of India's National Newspaper] (June 10, 1999). Just as the world is coming to terms with the electronic commerce revolution, the computing world really seems to be excited about a new language called XML or Extensible Markup Language that many people look upon to fulfil the promises of E-commerce. At the outset, this may seem like what was spoken of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) a few years ago, before the World Wide Web and its applications became ubiquitous, but a serious look at XML is bound to convince even the worst sceptics of its enormous potential."

[June 10, 1999] "W3C's Amaya Browser Simplifies Web Editing." By Jim Rapoza. In PC Week [Online] Volume 16, Number 23 (June 03, 1999), pages 37, 45. "In PC Week Labs' tests, Amaya 2.0, which was released last month, allowed us to easily edit Web pages as we viewed them with no prior downloading of the page necessary. We could use Amaya, which is truly WYSIWYG, to do sample changes to see how they worked before saving them to the Web site -- a process as seamless as saving a Microsoft Word document to a network drive. Documents can be saved as HTML or XHTML (Extensible HTML). As the W3C's experimental browser, Amaya adheres strictly to the HTML DTD (Document Type Definition), so Web pages with nonstandard HTML don't display properly. However, it is possible to customize the browser/editor to use another DTD, making Amaya a very attractive tool for Web-based content management. For many companies, though, creating a DTD is no small job. For images, Amaya supports the new Portable Network Graphics image format and has experimental support for scalable vector graphics. The browser/editor also includes a demonstration implementation of MathML, an Extensible Markup Language application that makes it possible to create Web pages that handle complex mathematical expressions."

[June 10, 1999] "Low-Cost EAI Tool Adds XML Support." By [Staff]. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 23 (June 07, 1999), page 5. Note on Data Junction's addition of XML support to its Universal Transformation Suite.

[June 09, 1999] "RosettaNet Jumps on XML Bandwagon." By Matthew Nelson and Stannie Holt. In InfoWorld Electric (June 09, 1999). "The Extensible Markup Language (XML) will be the basis of RosettaNet's latest efforts at a shared electronic-commerce language for PC and software makers and dealers. The new initiative, eConcert, will be unveiled Thursday [June 10, 1999] at a press conference of RosettaNet members in Menlo Park, California. The XML-based eConcert will let RosettaNet's members -- including Compaq, Intel, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, American Express, Solectron, and Toshiba -- collaborate by giving them common definitions of 'price,' 'shipping,' 'processor speed,' 'modem,' etc., according to a source close to the group. The members are making a commitment to use eConcert by next February of next year, the source said. RosettaNet will also be announcing a system to create communities of buyers and sellers, such as chip makers and component assemblers on the Internet. . ." See also "RosettaNet." See: 'eConcert Announcement'. RosettaNet Press Event. The RosettaNet Press Event of Thursday, June 10, 1999 [Stanford Park Hotel, Menlo Park, California] is to cover the 'Launch of eConcert'. eConcert is the implementation phase of the RosettaNet initiative, designed to leverage the Internet's potential as a business-to-business commerce tool.

[June 09, 1999] "Home Depot Adds Imaging, Plans to Go 90%+ Paperless." By Dominque Deckmyn. In Computerworld Volume 33, Number 23 (June 07, 1999), page 11. "Despite today's Extensible Markup Language (XML) hype, the dream of paperless, business-to-business transactions is still elusive. But The Home Depot Inc. has just started to deploy an imaging system that will help it reach a 90% to 95% paperless state for internal operations by early next year. . . Home Depot said it will eventually add XML forms to the mix. 'Ideally, we want to handle XML forms in the same workflow as scanned documents and EDI data,' Klein said. XML may be easier to implement than EDI at some small suppliers, he said, though EDI is likely to remain the preferred solution at Home Depot."

[June 09, 1999] "Microsoft Backs XML As Standard Language." By David Orenstein. In Computerworld Volume 33, Number 23 (June 07, 1999), page 78. "Although most corporate developers are still just pondering the power of Extensible Markup Language (XML), some Microsoft Corp. customers said the vendor is providing the tools and direction they need to spur XML's use for a variety of tasks. Microsoft is building support for XML into its development tools for the sweeping role it envisions for the language. XML allows developers to describe data within a Web page or text message with tags similar to those found in the Internet programming language HTML. A key difference, however, is that XML lets users define their own tags to describe their data. With some XML standards unfinished, no vendor can provide complete XML support, [Zona's] Marshall said, but Microsoft will provide a comprehensive set of XML tools, 'just in the same way that Visual Studio is a pretty good set of tools'."

[June 09, 1999] "XML: The online-catalog solution." By Gerald Lazar. In [IDG] Civic.com (June 08, 1999). "A new World Wide Web tool has emerged that promises to revolutionize the way state and local agencies do electronic commerce while protecting investments in such technologies as electronic data interchange (EDI) and Open Buying on the Internet (OBI). 'XML is probably the culmination of 20 to 30 years of computer theory,' said Rita Knox, vice president and research director at Gartner Group. 'Within the next year, XML will be everywhere. It will be stabilized, and everyone will be able to use it'. Proponents say XML is perfect for e-commerce. Rather than maintaining large (and frequently outdated) catalogs on a server, an agency can send automated inquires to suppliers' Web sites, grab appropriately tagged information and return with whatever is needed to run a comparison. . . XML also is being lauded as a way to rescue investment in EDI. Because data inside an EDI system can be tagged with XML, the information can be used with other XML-based systems. But while that capability is significant in the commercial sector and, to a lesser degree, at the federal level, it may not be as much of a concern to most states."

[June 09, 1999] "Sun Embraces WBEM Standard for Solaris." By Emily Fitzloff. In InfoWorld (June 8, 1999). "Sun Microsystems on Tuesday announced Solaris WBEM (Web-Based Enterprise Management) Services, in a move that will make the Solaris operating system significantly more manageable. According to Tom Goguen, product line manager for Solaris software at Sun, the company is the first Unix provider to announce support for the Distributed Management Task Force's (DMTF's) WBEM standard. Microsoft supports WBEM in Windows, but both IBM and Hewlett-Packard support the specification only in their enterprise management software, not in their operating systems. 'XML over HTTP will enable developers to write management applications that could manage both Unix and NT,' Goguen said." See the press release: "Sun to Implement Web-Based Enterprise Management Standards in Solaris Operating Environment. Industry Leaders Applaud Sun's Embrace of Emerging WBEM Standards."

[June 09, 1999] "Addressing the Enterprise: Why the Web needs Groves." By Paul Prescod. "July, 1999." Draft technical paper. "This paper is a high level introduction to the grove paradigm. Just as SGML was a hidden jewel buried in among the ISO standards for screwdriver heads, groves are another well-kept secret. The time has come to make "groves for the Web". This document should be relevant to the people that would do the specifying and coding to make groves available on the Web, but also to technically-oriented managers that are not interested in the fine details. [Document plan:] (1) This document is intended to explain the importance of the grove paradigm to the [enerprise] (2) It is intended to clarify in people's minds what the result of parsing an SGML or XML document should look like. Some variation on the grove model could be imagined, but the basics of the model seem fundamental and unavoidable to me: for instance, W3C's DOM reflects the same basic concepts. (3) Groves were invented to solve the problems that had become revealed at a particular point in the development of the SGML family of standards. XML has reached the same point so the time is right to popularize the grove idea." See also: "Groves, Grove Plans, and Property Sets in SGML/DSSSL/HyTime." [local archive copy]

[June 08, 1999] "Web Architecture: Describing and Exchanging Data." By Tim Berners-Lee, Dan Connolly, and Ralph R. Swick. W3C Note 7-June-1999. June 07, 1999. The W3C has released a programmatic essay as a NOTE under the title Web Architecture: Describing and Exchanging Data, authored by Tim Berners-Lee (Director of the W3C), Dan Connolly (Leader of Architecture Domain), and Ralph R. Swick (W3C Metadata Activity Leader). In the abstract, the authors draw a deep breath that should prepare readers for the scope of the discussion: "The World Wide Web is a universal information space. As a medium for human exchange, it is becoming mature, but we are just beginning to build a space where automated agents can contribute -- just beginning to build the Semantic Web. . ." The document "explores a common model" whereby Schema design [RDFSchema] and XML Schema design [XMLSchema], which began as independent design efforts, may "fit together as interlocking pieces of the semantic web technology." The authors "review some of the requirements for the Semantic Web. Secondly, they review the data models of many systems whose data is under strong pressure to be accessible directly in semantic form. For each, they try to delineate the mapping where it is evident, but outline the areas where specification work is required." The essay seeks to demonstrate "the importance of a common architecture for tree-structured documents and directed labeled graphs, [and to] shed new light on some of the design decisions in the XML syntax used by RDF; it discusses the way contemporary data models (relational, object, knowledge representation) relate to a unified Semantic Web Architecture." [local archive copy]

[June 08, 1999] "Commerce Framework Nears Reality." By Whit Andrews. In Internet World Volume 5, Issue 21 (June 07, 1999), pages 15, 18. "An XML specification intended to connect a variety of commerce standards into a single framework is scheduled for release within CommerceNet by the end of the month. . . Much of the original eCo charter has been taken up by others, leaving eCo, now a CommerceNet project, with the task of linking disparate programs that have overlapping aims. An alphabet soup of programs, including Open Buying on the Internet (OBI), BizTalk, and Internet Content Exchange (ICE), are intended to be included in this new network. Many of the programs are still several stages from completion, but work on eCo is intended to bring an initial public release by fall. 'Time and time again, when we turn to one of those efforts or another, they seem to be stuck in something,' said Murray Maloney, current chair of the eCo project. He noted his sympathy for the hurdles the standards face in addressing complex issues in a savagely competitive marketplace. 'What I did was say, 'We can't wait for all these people-we need to put a stake in the ground and go with it.' ECo is now intended to provide a language through which other standards can communicate their essential information to one another. Using eCo as a cross-marketplace Esperanto, for example, would allow an OBI-compliant invoice to convey a shipping address to an EDI-based legacy system. The idea is not to execute an information transfer by matching data field-for-field, but by telling a software partner what will follow and then delivering it." See "eCo Framework Project and Working Group."

[June 08, 1999] "Solaris To Support WBEM Spec." By Jeffrey Schwartz. In InternetWeek (June 08, 1999). "The Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) standard today will get a boost from Sun Microsystems. A new release of Sun's Solaris Easy Access Server, slated to ship this summer, will support the Distributed Management Task Force's WBEM specification, a standard for managing systems from applications that support the spec. By adding WBEM support to Solaris, administrators can manage Solaris systems with any WBEM-compliant application or from a Web browser. Sun said it's shipping release of WBEM Solaris Services will also support the XML/HTTP specification, which the DMTF is expected to finalize as early as next week at meeting scheduled to take place in San Jose, Calif. Among other things, XML/HTTP will provide interoperability of management applications by gathering data from both Windows- and Unix-based systems. Without XML, WBEM-enabled applications would have to connect to NT and Solaris servers separately and couldn't interchange data. But by supporting XML, 'I can write a standard management application and point it to an NT server or a Solaris server and manage both in the same way,' Sun's Goguen said. Also by using XML, applications don't have to support competing object languages, notably Microsoft's COM and Sun's Java-based RMI. Rather, service providers take data and store it in the WBEM Common Information Format (CIM) Object Manager. CIM is a DMTF standard that allows the interchange of management data among different systems and platforms." Note: 'Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) is an initiative based on a set of management and Internet standard technologies developed to unify the management of enterprise computing environments. WBEM provides the ability for the industry to deliver a well-integrated set of standard-based management tools leveraging the emerging technologies such as CIM and XML.' For further information, see: "DMTF Common Information Model (CIM)." See also "Sun Adopts WBEM, and Provides the Active Ingredient with Java Technology" and the recent press release, Sun to Implement Web-Based Enterprise Management Standards in Solaris Operating Environment. Industry Leaders Applaud Sun's Embrace of Emerging WBEM Standards."

[June 08, 1999] "IBM To Fold XML Into DB2." By James Gaskin. In Inter@ctive Week [Online] (June 07, 1999). "IBM is making a big push to incorporate eXtensible Markup Language technology into its core database. At the recent XML One conference, IBM repeated its pledge to fold eXtensible Markup Language into the DB2 version 6.1 database. 'We certainly see XML as mainstream technology and a core technology for application frameworks,' said Marie Wieck, director of XML technology at IBM. 'The XML Extender is in beta test now,' Wieck said, referring to the DB2 tool to import and export XML files. 'We have over 500 developers working on XML inside IBM.' Wieck sees IBM playing a central and critical role in XML development. 'We're providing an XML search engine so companies can find DTD [Document Type Definitions] resources already out there. We also provide actual services such as XML education and schema development, and are involved in a number of groups creating the standards.' DTDs are files that define the codes used to display a document. . ."

[June 08, 1999] "A Hitchhiker's Guide To XML." By James E. Gaskin. In Inter@ctive Week [Online] (June 07, 1999), pages 27-28. "Recent announcements that high-tech bigs AT&T, IBM and Microsoft were pushing the eXtensible Markup Language brought renewed attention to the HyperText Markup Language follow-on. The eXtensible Markup Language, which made its debut in 1996, quickly evolved from an improved Web design option into a structured format for data interchange that can simplify transactions. Companies are embracing XML as a key component for electronic commerce. And XML proponents have responded by introducing a mind-numbing array of new tools - and acronyms - for the XML framework. Although most of the tools promise to improve electronic commerce, the sheer number of XML offshoots threatens to overwhelm even the most technically astute business manager. 'This is a new era of information exchange,' says Dan Connolly, the XML Activity Lead for the standards-setting World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Most of the new XML offshoots fall into several major areas such as document control, forms, graphics multimedia and security. Here's a quick guide. . ."

[June 07, 1999] "SoftQuad Breaks New Ground with XML Editor." By Herb Bethoney. In PC Week [Online] Volume 16, Number 23 (June 03, 1999) [PCLabs Review], page 3. "As the first stand-alone XML editor to shield authors from the complexities of creating documents in Extensible Markup Language, SoftQuad Software Inc.'s XMetal takes an important step toward popularizing XML, the next-generation Web page authoring language. XMetaL 1.0, which shipped last week, uses an intuitive word-processor-like interface to help professional XML document creators quickly become more productive. PC Week Labs found the $495 application, which runs only on Windows, to be as potent a tool for XML as SoftQuad's popular HotMetal Pro editor is for HTML. Although XMetaL is easy to learn, it isn't a visual document creation tool like NetObjects Inc.'s Fusion or Microsoft Corp.'s FrontPage. Users will need to know the mechanics of writing XML code to take advantage of SoftQuad's shortcuts. In tests, XMetaL was a snap to install and learn. We used an included DTD (Document Type Definition) file as a starting point to quickly create and customize an XML document with XMetal's intuitive tools. Unlike XML editors from Arbortext Inc. or LivePage Corp. that are part of broader Web content management systems, XMetal is a full-featured XML editor that will easily complement those systems. . ." See also the news item [and 'XMetal Tests XML Mettle']. Antone Gonsalves previewed XMetaL in "SoftQuad Forges XML Trail. Easy-to-use XMetal editor speeds up authoring, offers variety of wizards", PCWeek, December 7, 1998.

[June 07, 1999] "Using XML To Do Remote Procedure Calls To CGI Scripts. Exploring XML-RPC. Web-based Distributed Computing Gets Even Easier." By Jon Udell. In BYTE.com (June 07, 1999). [Feature] "At UserLand Software, Dave Winer recently deployed the kind of simple, elegant, and useful application of Internet technology that always puts a smile on my face. At his site, you can run a Mail To The Future application that enables you to send mail to yourself (or, actually, anyone) at some future date. This is, all by itself, a wonderful idea. Even more wonderful, in my opinion, is how Dave did it, and the deep (positive) consequences of his approach: using some of the features of XML (Extensible Markup Language), he implemented control of the CGI-based service in a way that not only lets it be invoked interactively, by a person employing a Web browser, but also, just as readily, by another script -- in the language of distributed computing, by using a Remote Procedure Call (RPC)."

[June 07, 1999] "XML: The Next Big Thing." By Tom R. Halfhill. In IBM Think Research Magazine Number 1 (1999). "Standardized tags will make data understandable even to machines. Writer Tom R. Halfhill, former senior editor at Byte, introduces us to XML. He then describes the benefits of using this powerful metalanguage for e-business. The article highlights the latest XML tools pouring out of IBM's research labs around the world, as well as IBM's significant involvement in developing XML standards. . . an emerging standard called XML, for eXtensible Markup Language, can label data in still more useful ways. XML is what is known as a 'metalanguage' -- a language for creating other languages, in this case new and useful markup languages. For all its promise, however, the nature of XML can be difficult to grasp. Like the fabled elephant that three men perceived variously as a snake, a rope or a tree, depending on which part they touched, XML can appear to be different things to different people. For consumers and researchers, XML promises to help search engines and intelligent agents return more meaningful results from forays onto the Web. Although the tags created with XML resemble the HTML tags used today to create Web pages, there are two important differences: XML tags separate content from presentation, and XML is extensible -- that is, it allows the creation of new tags for new and unforeseen purposes."

[June 07, 1999] "XML At Risk." By [Staff]. In InternetWeek Issue 768 (June 07, 1999) [Gray Matter]. "XML is just starting to take hold as the universal language of e-business, and already it's in danger of being turned into a collection of dialects. The beauty of the Extensible Markup Language is its use of common schema and common Document Type Definitions (DTDs) for facilitating the exchange of business data between partners. But recent developments put that commonality at risk. Microsoft's move is the most recent and far-reaching. A couple of weeks ago, it created BizTalk.org, a Web site that serves as a semi-independent clearinghouse for XML schema, which describe different kinds of business data. It also published a draft of the BizTalk Framework, which describes methods for converting business objects and application logic into XML. Microsoft maintains that BizTalk.org and the BizTalk framework aren't just attempts to extend XML to work more closely with Microsoft products, including its upcoming XML server. And so far, there's no evidence to the contrary. The framework is sticking to XML standards. And BizTalk.org has some heady third-party members, including Boeing and SAP, that have no vested interest in Microsoft's success. . ."

[June 07, 1999] "Thru the Magic of XML." By Dave Winer. Part of the DaveNet Website (June 04, 1999). "In March we started a new syndication server called My.UserLand.Com. Along with Netscape's My.Netscape.Com, we are operating compatible servers that support a new web content syndication format called RSS. Our servers have been operating for three months, aggregating popular news channels and weblogs to each of our respective audiences. . . With absolutely no coordination, today four new channels came online, all of them from prestigious net news sources. The channels are ZDNet UK, The Register, Dr Dobbs Journal and MacWEEK. What's remarkable about this group is that each of these services use different content management software yet they plug into our Frontier-based content system thru the magic of XML."

[June 07, 1999] "Growing Java Rift Creates Better Opportunity for XML. [Behind the Lines]" By Mark Tebbe [President, Lante Corp]. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 23 (June 07, 1999), page 31. "The computer industry thrives on unifying technologies, and with Microsoft distancing itself and given the general uncertainty in the Java marketplace, the industry still needs a glue layer. While messaging middleware layers serve the high-end market well, they are too complex for most environments. Thus XML, which is quickly expanding from its unifying role in electronic commerce, will provide an industry general layer. Given recent announcements, the majority of the industry is coalescing around XML. With an international standard in place and another one in development as well as most major vendors supporting it, XML has the momentum to become the next universal unifying layer. . . And XML will go well beyond merely gluing information into a Web page. As we are seeing in the electronic-commerce market, XML allows for various vendors to more easily exchange intelligent documents among products and underlying systems. While there is still some dispute in the exact DTD (document type definition) tags among vendors, this is getting ironed out. But this dispute on tags doesn't undermine XML per se, just its usage. However, we will continue to see dispute of the official tags for a while to come. For those who haven't taken a serious look at XML because it is only used in I-commerce applications, I suggest a revisit. This technology will have a significant role in design and development of many different corporate systems. And because no one vendor owns XML, the likelihood of XML following Java's path to unsupported demise is reduced."

[June 07, 1999] "Microsoft eyes app integration. Readies XML router, software for EAI." By Antone Gonsalves. In PC Week [Online] Volume 16, Number 22 (May 31, 1999), page 14. 'Microsoft Corp.'s drive to make Windows a team player within large corporations' heterogeneous environments is taking the company into new, unfamiliar territory: EAI. The Redmond, Wash., company is readying two products for enterprise application integration: BizTalk Server, a message router and translator that's based on XML (Extensible Markup Language), and new software, code-named Babylon, that connects Windows with application servers, legacy systems and message-oriented middleware. Microsoft discussed both last week during its TechEd Developers Conference here. With BizTalk, Microsoft intends to make XML the pipe for carrying data between its own products as well as applications from other vendors, including front- and back-office software. That's good news for Microsoft customers, many of whom are looking to XML for a platform-neutral way of moving data through the Internet or in business-to-business commerce. The BizTalk Server, part of Microsoft's BackOffice product line, will be released in beta this summer and is scheduled to ship shortly after Windows 2000. Microsoft is also using the BizTalk name to refer to a set of XML schemata to describe documents, such as purchase orders and payment requests used in vertical markets. Microsoft is working with trade groups to develop the schemata that would be used in the BizTalk Server and made available to other vendors."

[June 07, 1999] "Standardization Hasn't Unified Scripting Approaches." By James C. Luh. In Internet World Volume 5, Issue 20 (May 24, 1999), page 23. "When Netscape introduced the JavaScript client-side scripting system in its 2.0 browser, developers gained rich features for controlling the browser interface--but with those features came a set of headaches that aren't likely to go away soon. Yet most of the difficulty, experts say, comes not from incompatibilities in the JavaScript and JScript languages but from differences in the browsers' document object models (DOMs), which govern how scripting commands are used to access and modify a document's structure and content. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recently finalized a specification for a standard DOM [Document Object Model ], but currently neither major Web browser complies fully with the W3C specification, according to George Olsen, project leader of the Web Standards Project. Olsen's group pressures software makers for better standards support in Web browsers. Olsen said some developers are examining innovative new ways to solve the compatibility problems. One is FreeDOM, which provides a JavaScript library that lets developers use the W3C DOM interfaces with current Web browsers. . ."

[June 07, 1999] "Symantec Crafts Wizards Tool. Visual Café serves framework for deployment, debugging of EJB components." By Antone Gonsalves. In PC Week [Online] Volume 16, Number 22 (May 31, 1999), page 29. "Called Enterprise JavaBean Universal Framework, the new features will be part of Visual Café Enterprise Suite and will be available in late June. Visual Café is currently at Version 3.0, and the new features will be part of a point release. The EJB framework provides wizards for generating APIs and deployment descriptors, written in XML (Extensible Markup Language). The tool also builds JAR (Java archive) files for deployment of EJB components. The upgrade will provide even tighter integration for selected application servers, tying into their deployment tools. A Visual Café developer would also be able to invoke an application server's tools to build entity beans, which are not yet available in the EJB specification but which have been implemented by many application server vendors."

[June 07, 1999] "XML: AT&T Adopts DataChannel." By [Staff]. In PC Week [Online] Volume 16, Number 22 (May 31, 1999), page 29. "AT&T Laboratories, a division of AT&T Corp., will use DataChannel Inc.'s Extensible Markup Language framework to develop network services, the companies announced this month. AT&T Labs will create prototype applications that will let users facilitate the publication, entitlement, notification, organization and delivery of content from disparate sources, all within a browser interface."

[June 07, 1999] "XML Poised for Broad Acceptance." By [Staff Analysts]. From The Yankee Group Research Notes. (Week of June 01, 1999). "[. . .] in a brief 15-month period, XML has made rapid progress with the emergence of additional XML-based standards, and as numerous vendors incorporated XML into the innards of their own software. Yet, the broadest uses--inter-company integration--remain untapped. As a universal alphabet, XML could someday be used for a majority of inter-company transactions and inter-company integration. Last week that possibility took a giant leap forward. On Monday, Microsoft launched a Web portal for collaboration and storage of BizTalk document type definitions (DTDs, record schemas for XML), one day before the OASIS industry consortium launched its own XML.org Web site, itself a DTD repository and overlapping somewhat with BizTalk.org. These seemingly competitive Web sites could have tanked XML for good. The main division between the two groups may have been Microsoft's legitimate hesitation to support and put money behind a fledgling broad organization (OASIS and its XML.org portal) when Microsoft thought that it could accomplish the same on its own. On Friday, Microsoft changed course and made a verbal commitment to apply to OASIS and XML.org. This followed Ariba's recent pledge to roll its cXML standard into BizTalk, and last week, Commerce One's agreement to work with BizTalk, as well as with XML.org. All of this will likely move the industry toward fewer, more interoperable data layouts housed in XML DTDs. Because it is far easier and less risky to support fewer DTDs, we expect that with Microsoft supporting a broad industry initiative in OASIS/XML.org, and with the number of overlapping DTDs shrinking, XML is finally poised to be widely deployed in a wide range of applications. Expect a coming surge in corporate RFPs as well as in software that supports XML." [ygrn6-1-99.html] For the complete analysis, contact The Yankee Group at: +1 (617) 956-5000; Fax: +1 (617) 956-5005; Email: info@yankeegroup.com

[June 07, 1999] "Two XML Clearinghouses Compete For eCommerce." By Joshua Walker with Ted Schadler. Forrester Research Brief (May 27, 1999). Forrester analysts interviewed Laura Walker (OASIS Executive Director) and James Utzschneider (Microsoft, Application Developers Customer Service Unit) on details of the XML.ORG endeavor, the BizTalk Web site (www.biztalk.org), and the relationship between the two initiatives. Forrester's analysis proceeded on the conviction that ecommerce adoption "depends upon building consensus around industry-specific XML vocabularies,"; they support a public forum for collaboration in the development of these vocabularies. "Microsoft and OASIS, a nonprofit standards organization, have launched competing Web sites that target eCommerce developers with XML resources and standard XML vocabularies. But two public XML clearinghouses serving the same need is one site too many. Forrester believes that these groups must merge their sites to accelerate the adoption of XML eCommerce vocabularies." For details, contact Forrester Research, Inc. at +1 617/497-7090 or by email forrester@forrester.com.

[June 07, 1999] "Microsoft Launches An XML Clearing-house -- Alone." Forrester Research Brief (May 24, 1999). This Forrester Research report focuses upon Microsoft's XML clearinghouse: '[designed] to accelerate XML commerce adoption -- and sell more servers -- Microsoft launched biztalk.org, a site that makes it easy to find and use valuable XML resources." Forrester believes that this Web site establishes competitive camps in the nascent XML software market" and that a 'Microsoft-only XML clearinghouse' is not in the best interests of XML's progress. For details, contact Forrester Research, Inc. at +1 617/497-7090 or by email forrester@forrester.com.

[June 07, 1999] "HTML, XML Get Hitched." By Jim Rapoza. In PC Week [Online] (May 17, 1999). "XML is the future of web communications, but HTML will remain an important tool for creating Web documents as it evolves into an application of Extensible Markup Language. The latest [XHTML] working draft from the World Wide Web Consortium, released this month, describes many of the capabilities and attributes of XHTML 1.0 (Extensible HTML), which will eventually replace traditional HTML. XHTML will leverage XML to provide structure and increased extensibility and will be modular, allowing authors to easily use subsets of the language. Most important, XHTML will enable site authors to support the growing range of end-user appliances, such as Palm devices and set-top boxes, by providing write-once, run-anywhere capability. With XHTML, large Web sites and corporate intranets and extranets will be able to provide content displays that work more effectively on nonstandard browser clients."

[June 07, 1999] "The Web Will Be Smart - From HTML To XML." By [Staff]. In PC Magazine [Online] (June 22, 1999). The Internet is a vast repository of information, but the Web will soon be able to anticipate as well as deliver the precise information you need. Today, XML (for eXtensible Markup Language) is emerging as the technology to do just that. HTML provided the language to define the layout of text and graphics on a page. XML, on the other hand, is not a presentation language but a common way of describing data. Thus it will enable not only more precise searching, it will let businesses share data more efficiently. In short, the Web, which was built on HTML, is being rebuilt on XML. . ."

[June 04, 1999] "Microsoft Joins XML Industry Group." By Mike Ricciuti. In CNET News.com (June 3, 1999). "In an apparent about-face, Microsoft has joined an Extensible Markup Language (XML) industry consortium supported by its competitors, easing fears that a Java-like war will splinter the XML market. Microsoft has joined OASIS, a nonprofit XML industry consortium endorsed by Microsoft's rivals, including IBM and Sun Microsystems. James Utzschneider, director of Microsoft's BizTalk initiative, said the company on Friday decided to join OASIS at the senior-member level, meaning the company has paid OASIS a $7,500 fee and is participating in planning meetings. Utzschneider also said Microsoft is evaluating a Web site sponsorship pledge of $100,000 to the organization. . . Microsoft's BizTalk.org Web site, and OASIS' XML.org site are intended to serve as DTD repositories and resource centers for companies implementing XML. BizTalk.org will host BizTalk-specific DTDs, while OASIS intends to host information for "any and all specifications," according to Laura Walker, executive director of OASIS. . ."

[June 04, 1999] "Feature: Implement Sophisticated Tables in IE5. Learn how to create intuitive tables in IE5 using XML, data islands, and behaviors." By Kurt Cagle [President, Cagle Communications]. In WebBuilder Magazine (June 1999). "Lost on an XML Island - The Microsoft HTML implementation for IE5 includes an interesting way of using XML called data islands. Islands of XML code can be embedded into your IE5 HTML pages by placing the code within a <XML> </XML> tag set. This set informs the browser that everything within the tags is XML code, although it's important to note that the <XML> tag itself isn't part of that code. The XML code doesn't get rendered to the browser-to a great extent, the browser treats the code in much the same way it does a script or a style sheet. . . On XML's Best Behavior - Code that enables component level functionality, but isn't written in traditional languages (such as C++ or Visual Basic), seems to end up gaining the moniker of 'behavior.' The term behavior implies that you're imbuing a block of HTML code with intelligence. . . Behaviors and XML fit hand in hand. . ."

[June 04, 1999] "Sites Promote Use of XML in E-Commerce. Some fear two new sites is too many." By Carol Sliwa. In ComputerWorld Volume 33, Number 22 (May 31, 1999), page 12. "Two separate Web sites were launched last week in a bid to stimulate business use of Extensible Markup Language (XML) to exchange data in electronic-commerce transactions. Microsoft Corp.'s BizTalk.Org and the nonprofit Organization for the Advancement of Structure Information Standards' (OASIS) XML.org both claim to serve as reference spots and open repositories for the XML schemas, or data description sets, that companies and vertical industries will use in business transactions. Microsoft Joins Up - Recognizing that the two sites have similar goals and might be viewed as competing, Microsoft late last week joined the OASIS effort, backed by IBM, Oracle Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc. and others. But that might not clear up all the confusion surrounding the myriad business-related XML efforts currently under way, analysts said. 'I don't think either of them will be the only [site] out there,' said Rita Knox, an analyst at Gartner Group Inc. in Stamford, Conn." See "XML.ORG - The XML Industry Portal."

[June 04, 1999] "Beware of Microsoft's XML." By David Strom. In WebBuilder Magazine (June 1999). One of the most interesting innovations in Microsoft's latest beta of its Office 2000 suite is the way it uses XML, or Extensible Markup Language, as its common file format. This development has important implications to those of us that create and exchange documents, and it will affect what we use to author Web pages in the future. You can save documents directly to your Web site by FTP. Once you enter the URL, username, and password, the FTP site appears on your local directory tree as just another location. Nice. Very nice. The downside is that I must make a pact with the devil. Once I go down the route of saving my pages as MS-XML, the naked code may become unintelligible. The pages also take up more room and so take a bit longer to download and view. Now, I am not an XML programmer, or even any kind of programmer. I have purposely kept my Web pages sparse and relatively devoid of "advanced" features, in the name of being browser agnostic and universally viewable. I fear that the more people that use Word 2000, the more that MS-XML will replace ordinary HTML code on the Web. . ."

[June 04, 1999] "Filtering with Servlets. Even simple Java applications can benefit from a dose of XML." By Claude Duguay. In JavaPro Magazine (April 1999). The key strength in XML is that it was designed to represent arbitrary, hierarchical data, lending structure to an otherwise potentially undistinguished piece of information. We're going to use XML to represent questions in an online test. By using an XML parser to build a Document Object Model and using that model to construct dynamically generated HTML, we can provide access to a variety of information without having to create more elaborate representations on separate Web pages. . ."

[June 03, 1999] "XML and Java Tackle Enterprise Application Integration. Find out why XML and Java have captured the minds of enterprise application developers." By Todd Sundsted [President, Etcee]. In JavaWorld Magazine (June 1999). "XML (Extensible Markup Language) began life as a 'new and improved' HTML. It has since found a place not only on the Web but also in the enterprise. This month, Todd examines one aspect of XML's role in the enterprise: enterprise application integration. . . Now consider the benefits: (1) Using XML results in less custom development. A validating XML parser can use a supplied DTD to automatically check the syntax of a document and enforce business rules. The application has only to validate the character data between the tags. (2) XML documents are self-documenting. The textual nature of XML tags and the inclusion of a well-defined DTD greatly reduce the amount of guesswork involved in developing a translator. (3) XML allows developers to create open, standardized interfaces for existing systems based on robust and widely available tools."

[June 03, 1999] "XML and the IT Architect. What is this new technology all about and how does it affect enterprise and application architectures?" By Jonathan Rich. In SunWorld Magazine Volume 13, Number 6 (June 1999). "XML is an interesting and relevant topic for system architects, but there isn't an abundance of practical information available that describes how to leverage this new technology. This month's IT Architect, Jonathan Rich, attempts to remedy that lack of information with a hands-on introduction to reading XML documents and a survey of XML standards and tools -- with a particular look at XML middleware. He also offers his assessment of how XML will affect enterprise and application architectures. . . The most exciting new architectural approach may be the ability to use XML-based middleware and the exchange of XML business objects to integrate business processes across corporate firewalls. Communication between Web applications is far easier to build when a WAN protocol like HTTP is available for the transport layer, and one is not restricted to LAN-based protocols/middleware like IIOP/CORBA and DCOM, which are unable to pass through most Internet firewalls. XML promises to bring architecture to a new level, and we, as IT architects, have the opportunity to exploit this technology in our future environments."

[June 03, 1999] "PHP and JavaScript Make Easy work of Hard Problems. [Speakers at Eighth World Wide Web Conference Demonstrate Solutions.]" By Cameron Laird and Kathryn Soraiz. In SunWorld Magazine Volume 13, Number 6 (June 1999). "PHP is one technology with a particularly lofty ratio of accomplishment to recognition. Its creator, Rasmus Lerdorf, reported that the latest survey results from Netcraft show that more than one out of every ten (10) Web servers appears to be equipped to process PHP. Such prominent sites as XOOM.com, Apache.org, Red Hat Software, Freedows OS, First USA Bank, FreshMeat, Miss USA 1999, SegFault, and Volvo rely on PHP. . ." [Note on PHP - Hypertext Preprocessor. "PHP Version 3.0 is an HTML-embedded scripting language. Much of its syntax is borrowed from C, Java and Perl with a couple of unique PHP-specific features thrown in. The goal of the language is to allow web developers to write dynamically generated pages quickly. See the PHP Manual [Section] XLVIII. XML Parser Functions. This PHP extension implements support for James Clark's expat in PHP."] Also in this issue/column 'Regular Expressions': Schnitzenbaumer, in contrast, [at WWW8] convincingly demonstrated that even current browsers support XML. More precisely, his company's Mozquito project makes it practical to enlist the JavaScript built into modern browsers to parse and render XML tags. This is a stunning achievement. First, Mozquito is written with sufficient care to be portable. Stack Overflow tests it even on Internet Explorer for the Macintosh, which is notoriously nonconformant. Mozquito is also useful. The high point of Schnitzenbaumer's talk was an illustration of how XML processing makes it feasible for a nonprogramming page designer to put together and maintain an application as complex as an appointment book calendar. Mozquito introduces appropriate general-purpose persistence and rendering constructs that bring quite sophisticated projects within the grasp of design specialists. Moreover, it's all expressed in XML, so that Mozquito gains the leverage of XML development and service environments. . ."

[June 03, 1999] "Sun's JSP Specification Adds Dynamic Punch to Application Servers." By Dana Gardner. In InfoWorld (June 03, 1999). "Java application servers received a standardized way to deliver dynamic Web content Wednesday when Sun Microsystems unveiled the JavaServer Pages (JSP) specification. JSP, a key function of the Java2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) platform to be officially unveiled June 15 [1999] at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco, allows developers to more easily create dynamic and componentized server-generated Web pages that can assemble content from various sources, Sun said. The delivery by Sun of the JSP specification comes just a few weeks after the public draft of the Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) 1.1 specification. Both JSP and EJB form foundations, along with CORBA and XML, to allow for wider 'write once, run anywhere' Java functionality, Sun said."

[June 03, 1999] "A New Language May Ease Web Use." By Anne Eisenberg. In New York Times [on the Web] (June 03, 1999) [Technology]. "The latest browsers understand it, undergraduates are signing up for classes to learn it, and -- ultimate cyberspace compliment -- start-ups are forming around it. This Internet phenomenon of the moment is XML, or Extensible Markup Language, a new language that may one day power the second generation of the World Wide Web. 'The Web has two main problems -- it's slow and it's hard to find the one piece of information you need when you search,' said Tim Bray, chief technical officer at Textuality, in Vancouver, British Columbia, and one of the architects of the new language. 'XML is designed to fix both these problems'. . . The problem was not in having tags but in having one set of tags,' said C. M. Sperberg-McQueen, of the University of Illinois at Chicago and a member of the original committee. 'Businesses who use the Web needed to say, 'This is an order number. This is a part number.' They needed to identify each part of their business documents.' Dr. Sperberg-McQueen and his colleagues developed the new markup language as a simplified version of a difficult precursor, SGML, or Standard Generalized Markup Language, completing the job in 1998."

[June 03, 1999] "XML Fits Naturally With Scripting." By Ellis Booker. In InternetWeek (June 1, 1999). "Despite rapid advances in object programming languages such as Java, plenty of Web applications working today rely on lowly scripting languages. Among the candidates are JavaScript, VB Script, Perl and Tcl. The industry is now finding that Extensible Markup Language--which is becoming popular for integrating e-commerce applications -- also has a natural affinity with scripting languages, since XML is designed for describing text and scripting languages are designed for processing text. Scriptics Corp., which extends the open-source Tcl scripting language with a commercial version called TclPro, is broadening Tcl to later this year add XML support to the open-source version."

[June 03, 1999] "Microsoft Plants Roots in XML." By John Fontana. In Network World Volume 16, Number 22 (May 31, 1999), page 17. "Extensible Markup Language (XML) is becoming such an important standard that it will be a common thread through all of Microsoft's products, company officials say. At its TechEd '99 conference, the company outlined its direction with XML, unveiled building blocks of its knowledge management framework and released a technical beta of Exchange Server. XML is a tagging system similar to HTML that provides data about data. 'XML will be a core part of all platforms and applications including Office, BackOffice, Visual Studio, Windows and MSN,' says James Utzschneider, director of industry frameworks and BizTalk. Microsoft also unveiled a product code-named Babylon that connects Windows applications to legacy databases by converting XML messages into legacy formats. It will also connect to BizTalk, a server that links electronic commerce sites. Microsoft also released the draft specification of the BizTalk framework and opened the BizTalk.org Web site."

[June 03, 1999] "Building the Management Intranet." By James Herman. In Network World (May 24, 1999), pages 43-44. "The management intranet will first be used as a vehicle to make information easily available to any authorized operators or technicians, regardless of what desktop operating system they use. This universal client approach will promote ease of use and reduce training time - because everyone knows how to use a Web browser - while offering remote access to management tools over WANs and LANs. At the same time, Web standards such as HTML and Extensible Markup Language (XML) can be used to link your different management systems in a practical and easily extendible manner. . . Management tool vendors such as Cisco and Tivoli already are using hyperlinks and XML exchange to improve the way management tools work together. For frequently used tools and major enterprisewide systems, you can begin to improve navigation by creating custom hyperlinks, which will reduce the number of clicks it takes to move among primary pages. Also, you can begin to tie different kinds of resources together with scripts that, for example, automatically populate forms with information from databases. In 18 months or less, Common Information Model (CIM) interfaces will be widely implemented on most management tools. At first, the main effect of CIM, which is part of the Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) initiative, will be to harmonize the naming of managed objects across different tools. . ."

[June 03, 1999] "Too Much 'X' in XML?" By [Staff]. In WebServer Online Magazine Volume 4, Number 6 (June 1999) [WebNews]. "Each new use of XML spawns its own set of DTDs, such as for e-commerce, industrial applications, medical applications, individual corporate databases and so forth. Some developers are even creating overlapping, or competing, DTDs for the same market niche. For instance, vendors working in the online procurement space have several versions to choose from, including Commerce XML (cXML), which is being developed by a group of 40 companies lead by Ariba Inc., San Jose, CA, and RosettaNet, an nonprofit organization involved in creating XML-based supply chain process for IT companies. Another specification is underway at The Open Buying on the Internet (OBI) Consortium, a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing open standards for business-to-business Internet commerce, that is working to integrate XML into its OBI protocol..." [local archive copy]

[June 03, 1999] "The X-Files." By Susan E. Fisher. In CIO Web Business Magazine (June 01, 1999). "XML is HTML's nimble cousin, but where developers use HTML to determine how information and images look on a Web page, they use XML to describe the content of that page. In other words, XML helps developers define what the content of a page means, not just how a browser displays it. . .XML has a way to go before achieving its potential as a universal tool, but its use is growing. In the third quarter of 1998, more than 16 percent of corporate users surveyed by Zona Research Inc. of Redwood City, Calif., had XML in their Web pages or applications, up from only 1 percent in the second quarter. Chet Ensign, director of electronic and editorial information technology at legal publisher Matthew Bender and Co. Inc. in New York City, is helping the company build a cross-reference system with XML. The system will allow customers to click on a highlighted citation in an electronic document to view such informational goodies as legal opinions, similar cases and case histories regardless of their source. In this capacity, XML can help Bender strengthen its relationship with new corporate siblings Lexis-Nexis and Shepard's Co."

[June 02, 1999] "A Look Inside Commerce XML (cXML) Version 0.91." By Mark Merkow. In Internet.com WebReference (May 27, 1999). "In mid-May 1999, cXML Version 0.91 became available for public download from cxml.org. I downloaded, printed, and dissected the PDF version in response to reader demands for additional information about cXML. In this week's one year anniversary edition, we take an in-depth look at how cXML's structure provides support for secure business-to-business exchange via the Web." For other references, see: "Commerce XML (cXML)."

[June 02, 1999] "The Document Object Model (DOM), Part I." By Tomer Shiran and Yehuda Shiran. In Internet.com WebReference (May 31, 1999). "The W3C's new DOM recommendation promises to make the lives of JavaScript/DHTML programmers easier. In part 1 of our new series on the DOM we'll look at the how a consistent object structure makes for easier Dynamic HTML in IE5 and Netscape 5." See the W3C Web site: Document Object Model: DOM. DOM Level 1 is a W3C Recommendation; Level 2 is now a working draft (March 04, 1999).

[June 01, 1999] "Using an XML Audit to Move SGML Data towards XML." By Charlie Halpern-Hamu, Ph.D. (Incremental Development, Inc.). A paper originally presented at XML '98 in Chicago. "Abstract: This paper describes, at a technical level, how to assess the XML-readiness of your SGML data as a first step towards moving it towards XML. This paper suggests an 'XML audit': a technical review of current markup practice with eye towards simplification. The goal of an XML audit is to understand which portions of your current SGML application are not XML. The next step might be to start deemphasizing your use of those features. Moving all the way to XML allows you to use XML tools that do not support full SGML. Even getting part way there means you can use a wider variety of SGML tools. In either case you will be simplifying work for both editorial and programming staff. Simpler is better. This paper is derived from James Clark's 'Comparison of SGML and XML', a World Wide Web Consortium Note (www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-sgml-xml-971215 by jjc@jclark.com)." [NB: The copy on the CD-ROM proceedings was apparently garbled during the composition process].

[June 01, 1999] "Portable Data / Portable Code: XML & JavaTM Technologies." By JP Morgenthal (NC.Focus). Prepared for Sun Microsystems. May [March] 1999. "The XML standard allows the enterprise to define its own markup languages with emphasis on specific tasks, such as electronic commerce, supply-chain integration, data management, and publishing. For those reasons, XML is rapidly becoming the strategic instrument for defining corporate data across a number of application domains. The properties of XML markup make it suitable for representing data, concepts, and contexts in an open, platform-, vendor-, and language-neutral manner. It uses tags -- identifiers that signal the start and end of a related block of data -- to create a hierarchy of related data components called elements. In turn, this hierarchy of elements provides context -- implied meaning based on location -- and encapsulation. As a result there is a greater opportunity to reuse this data outside of the application and data sources from which it was derived. . . The purpose of this paper is two-fold: To introduce the Extensible Markup Language (XML), as well as how it benefits the enterprise, and to explain the cooperative environment formed by integrating XML and Java technologies into a solution. Readers familiar with XML may want to concentrate on the sections that specifically deal with the discussion of using XML with Java technology." See related resources for Sun Microsystems' Java and XML development.

[June 01, 1999] "XML: The Language of the Next Generation?" By Bob Trott and Cara Cunningham. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 22 (May 31, 1999), page 12. "Microsoft officials said they believe the Web is in its second generation, and the third -- which is right around the corner -- will feature Extensible Markup Language (XML) as its centerpiece. XML was a recurring theme for developers at last week's TechEd conference in Dallas, and several Microsoft executives and product managers repeated a new mantra: Soon, all of the company's products will be XML-enabled. Microsoft's developer group vice president, Paul Maritz, said the current second-generation Web focuses on the server and providing applications and data to users. In the next generation, the Web becomes an "application integration architecture," which fundamentally acts as a gateway for transactions between businesses, according to Maritz. 'XML will revolutionize the usage of the Web to make it a business driver,' Maritz said."

[June 01, 1999] "Ericsson Helps Speed Up Mobile Browsing. Company's WebOnAir filtering client, gateway target roaming users connected to the Internet." By Jana Sanchez. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 22 (May 31, 1999). "WebOnAir Filter Proxy, a product for mobile operators and Internet service providers, increases the efficiency of downloading Web pages by allowing end users to reduce the quality and quantity of the information they are downloading to suit a smaller screen and a slower, wireless connection. WebOnAir can be used on GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) networks as well as those using TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) and Code Division Multiple Access, said Ericsson in a release. Although the product is mainly designed for use with notebook computers connected to the Internet via a mobile phone, it can also be used directly on mobile phones capable of browsing HTML pages and handheld connected devices with browsers, said Andersson. This means that using WebOnAir, mobile telephones with microbrowsers will be able to download any page on the Web. Ericsson, however, has been a strong proponent of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), a standard which will allow mobile users to download only pages that have been reauthored using XML (Extensible Markup Language). WebOnAir, contends Andersson, will complement WAP services by giving users more options. Mobile users will not be limited to pages designed for WAP-based browsers -- written in XML -- but will be able to access any HTML page. . ." From the press release: "Ericsson's WebOnAir solution is a complement to WAP technology (Wireless Applications Protocol) and its Wireless Mark-up Language (WML). WebOnAir is especially designed for graphic intense wireless www browsing on larger screens, like a laptop PC or a Personal Digital Assistant. But it also gives the same speed increase when downloading to a smaller screen mobile phone with a browser. . ."

[June 01, 1999] "New Web Sites Quench XML Thirst." By Matthew Nelson. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 22 (May 31, 1999), page 30. "Both Microsoft and the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) have founded Web sites to act as information repositories for the Extensible Markup Language (XML) for users and developers. Microsoft announced last week at its TechEd conference, in Dallas, the creation of BizTalk.org, which currently holds the first draft of specifications for the BizTalk Framework. The company intends to provide the site as an open repository for XML schemas using the BizTalk Framework for Internet commerce and application integration, according to the company. Microsoft announced BizTalk Framework in March as a way of using XML to assist in processing information for differing commerce sites. OASIS founded XML.org last week to provide a registry and repository for the access and management of XML schemas, Document Type Definitions, and other XML-related information."

[June 01, 1999] "Documentum backs Web. Upgraded document management app also uses XML." By Emily Fitzloff. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 22 (May 31, 1999), page 17. "Documentum this week plans to announce Documentum 4i, the latest incarnation of its document management platform, which has been redesigned for Web access and utilizes the Extensible Markup Language (XML) for content exchange. Documentum 4i helps integrate and manage business knowledge and processes associated with Web applications and corporate portals, according to Whitney Martin, Documentum director of platform marketing. One analyst said that Documentum 4i's 'Web-ified' environment puts the offering ahead of competing products. Underlying Documentum 4i is a Java-based Web architecture, which is extensible to support third-party applications and uses XML to exchange content between documents." See the press release.

[June 01, 1999] "EJB 1.1 Spec Eases App Server Choice." By Ellis Booker. In InternetWeek Issue 767 (May 31, 1999), page 23. "The Enterprise JavaBeans 1.1 draft, which Sun Microsystems released this month, moves closer to a standardized way of developing and deploying server-side Java. The update also points the way toward deploying EJB applications to servers from different vendors. Topping the changes in EJB 1.1 is that the 'deployment descriptor,' which defines how EJB classes are built, assembled and deployed, is now rendered as an XML document. Previously, it was handled as a group of Java objects. 'Using XML makes the dif-ferences between descriptors [in different Java app servers] much smaller, and XML is a much easier format for resolving the minor differences left over,' said Kevin Dick, founder of Kevin Dick Associates consultancy. One implication of EJB 1.1 is that users can wait until deployment time to decide which app server has the best features (performance, security, transaction monitor, connectors to back-end databases, etc.) for the job. Developers can test an application on multiple app servers, seeing which one performs best."

[June 01, 1999] "Web Middleware -- Lutris Technologies Enhydra." By [CMPNet Staff]. In Network Computing Issue 1011 (May 31, 1999). "Lutris Technologies' Enhydra is the first application server developed and distributed on the open-source software model. This full-featured Java/XML application server is a free download at www.enhydra.org, with complete access to source code under a FreeBSD-style licensing agreement. Modules of Enhydra include a servlet-based run-time environment, graphical tools for object-to-database mapping, a full XML compiler (in beta at press time), an application development wizard, and Enhydra Jolt, which lets developers use embedded Java code for dynamic HTML."

[June 01, 1999] "Web Babel? Building a New Web Language -- or a Tower of Cyber Babel." By Neil Gross. In BusinessWeek Online "XML.ORG is a site under construction, one that may find its goal -- consensus on a possible HTML successor -- elusive. XML.ORG was built by an industry standards group called OASIS to be a central clearinghouse for ideas, innovations, and news about XML. The letters stand for "extensible markup language," a powerful new technology that could replace HTML as the Web's lingua franca. XML.ORG went online on May 25 [1999], and has already garnered a fair quotient of industry buzz. But there are also some poignant realities: This Web site was born amidst widespread concern that XML is starting to fragment into multiple standards. A host of small XML software companies are striking out in different directions. And just one day before XML.ORG went live, Microsoft launched a site called BizTalk.Org with a mission that's nearly identical to XML.ORG's. Three days later, Microsoft took a step toward unification by offering to become a sponsor of OASIS, or the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards. . ."

[June 01, 1999] "Are Too Many Players Trying To Shape XML?" By Ellis Booker, Jeffrey Schwartz, and David Joachim. In InternetWeek (May 28, 1999), pages 1, 12. "XML's enormous potential for integrating applications and letting partners swap business data has Microsoft, IBM and others staking their early positions. Each is racing to deliver XML servers and parsers or XML extensions to their existing enterprise software. This week, for instance, Microsoft not only announced a summer beta release for its own XML server product (BizTalk Server) but also published a blueprint (BizTalk Framework) for converting business objects and application logic into XML. It also created a Web site (BizTalk.org) that serves as a quasi-independent clearinghouse for XML schema, which describe different kinds of business data. While experts agree that XML is worth all the fuss, they wondered aloud whether efforts such as BizTalk.org will collide with work already under way at various consortia to define industry-specific XML vocabularies. . . [some] worry that too many cooks are stirring the XML broth." [local archive copy]

[June 01, 1999] "Editorial: More on Schemas." By Brian E. Travis. In <TAG> Volume 13, Number 5 (May 1999), pages 1, 4. "Document Type Defintions (DTDs) are proven, structural taskmasters. But are DTDs truly appropriate for the object-oriented, rich data concepts being contemplated for delivery via the Web? TAG's editor looks at the future of XML DTDs in light of the alternative schema definition syntax being developed by the W3C Schema Working Group. . . 'I don't like the verbosity that the XML schemas require. A schema for a given structure is at least twice as large as the roughly equivalent DTD. However, with new tools coming along to help develop and manage schemas, we can have the richness of schemas with the ease of modern code development environments. I don't see the DTD lasting long after tools support XML schemas. You can quote me on that'." See 'XML Schemas' from the W3C: XML Schema Part 1: Structures and XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes.

[June 01, 1999] "RDF: Adding Structure to the Web." By Bob DuCharme. In <TAG> Volume 13, Number 5 (May 1999), pages 1-3. "The W3C's Resource Description Format (RDF) is a content labelling schema that permits authentication of page resource properties on the web. Contributing author Bob DuCharme offers readers a redux of the basic RDF standard and illustrates the potential RDF has to enhance client-side visibility of web pages in the future. RDF began as an extension of the W3CPICS (Platform for Internet Content Selection) standard, a system for labeling Internet content that gained fame for its promised ability to help hide pornography from children. The geeks involved, however, saw wider uses for this system that described content so that automated processes could take action based on those descriptions. Once XML became the obvious way to encode this information, RDF grew into something with enough promise that Tim Berners-Lee was soon telling CNN that it was the future of the Web. Because RDF is data about data, it's 'metadata'. . ."

[June 01, 1999] "Real-time XML Editor: Part II." By Brian E. Travis. In <TAG> Volume 13, Number 5 (May 1999), pages 5-7. "Last month, Architag International's President, Brian Travis, illustrated the portability and power inherent in XML by operating his real-time XML editor as a COM object accessible from Microsoft's IE5 web browser. This month, Travis unveils a dual window version of his XML editor sporting benefits that permit a developer to construct document schemas in one window while manipulating an XML instance in the other. What if you want to have more than one XML editing window on your page at the same time? This might be necessary, for example, if you want to create two transactions that adhere to different DTDs. Or, if you want to build a schema in one window based on a well-formed document in another window. Or, maybe you just want to show off. This month, we will consider the issues involved with editing two or more distinct XML documents inside of a single HTML page in memory. There are some things you need to think about if you need to edit more than one window on a single page. For one, you need to instantiate a copy of the DOM object for each window. . ."

[June 01, 1999] "Microsoft Joins WAP Forum." By [ArchiTag Staff] In <TAG> Volume 13, Number 5 (May 1999), page 12. "Microsoft Corp. has announced it has joined the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Forum, a consortium of more than 90 firms focused on developing wireless information and telephony services for digital mobile phones and other wireless terminals." See also the May 5th [1999] press release, "Microsoft Joins WAP Forum. Will Collaborate on Unified XML-Compliant Standard for Wireless Mobile Devices and Services."

[June 01, 1999] "Product Preview: XML Authority." By [ArchiTag Staff]. In <TAG> Volume 13, Number 5 (May 1999), page 8. "XML Authority is a window-oriented tool that provides a nice devlopment interface for the construction of XML schemas. Its competitive price point, emphasis on data structures, and admirable support for a full array of W3C Working Group schema proposals make XML Authority a very competitive structuring tool."

[June 01, 1999] "XML Becoming New Industry Battleground." By Brian Ploskina. In ent - The Independent Newspaper for Windows NT Enterprise Computing [Online] (May 27, 1999). "As a developer, you could write for generic Java so your application is available to all platforms, or you could use the switch in Microsoft Corp.'s Visual J++ to write Windows-specific Java, making Java perform better on Windows, but not at all on any other platform. Now the software giant has turned the same attention to XML, a standard in the industry, and the rest of the industry doesn't like it. Microsoft's framework for XML, BizTalk, has taken off with software vendors Baan Co. (www.baan.com), SAP AG (www.sap.com), PeopleSoft Inc. (www.peoplesoft.com), Ariba Technologies Inc. (www.ariba.com) and others. The company even came out with a Web site, BizTalk.Org, to be an online reference for BizTalk Framework specifications, schemas, reference materials, tools, sample applications and a community newsgroup."

[May 31, 1999] "Eprise Tool Offers Easy Intranet Security. Site content can be updated by nontechies." By Dominque Deckmyn. In Computerworld (May 31, 1999), page 16. Eprise Corp. last week released a version of software that lets nontechnical employees update the content on intranets, extranets and Web sites but also provides management tools and security. Version 2.0 adds support for Extensible Markup Language (XML), as well as additional workflow features for content approval. The software is priced at $50,000 per server, with no separate client licenses."

[May 31, 1999] "Idiom App Speaks Your Language. WorldServer software keeps multilanguage Web sites updated in fraction of time, cost." By Julia King. In Computerworld (May 31, 1999). [Presenting] Idiom Technologies Inc., whose Web content management software, WorldServer, lets electronic merchants maintain multiple foreign-language sites -- and do it from a centrally managed, original-language site. Using Extensible Markup Language, WorldServer works by inserting tags, or placeholders, where text appears on a site. When the text in the master version changes, the WorldServer software automatically sends notices to foreign-language editions of the site."

[May 31, 1999] "XML Node Inclusion Mechanism." By Paul Prescod. May 28, 1999. "Abstract: This note describes the syntax and semantics of a simple node inclusion mechanism for XML. Inclusion allows documents and parts of documents to be reused automatically in multiple documents. It should be considered a structured alternative to XML's text entity mechanism. The note builds upon Web Characterization [Webchar], the XML Information Set [InfoSet] and the XLink and XPointer specifications."

[May 31, 1999] "Stephen Deach - Response to Leventhal's Article." By Stephen Deach (Adobe). A response to the article "XSL Considered Harmful," by Michael Leventhal. Stephen Deach is Editor of the W3C Working Draft Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) Specification (21-April-1999). From the author's 'Conclusion': "If XSL provides a better mechanism to support online presentation, it is clearly in the web community's interest. If it provides a better solution to print it is clearly in the web community's interest. If it provides a common mechanism to support print and online presentation it is clearly in the web community's interest. If it does all of these, even better. From preliminary indications, XSL seems implementable and useful, thus Mr. Leventhal's request to stop work on XSL (at least until CSS-2 is fully implemented on every platform) is not only unrealistic, but is detrimental to the web, since it would delay widespread support for XSL." For references to other articles on XSL, see "Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL)."

[May 31, 1999] "What is XML, and what does it mean for you?." By Marc J. Anderson. In Austin Business Journal (May 31, 1999). "Currently available are several free XML parsers and, recently released by Microsoft, the first browser supporting XML. However, more standards are needed before widespread XML acceptance and use are possible. One of these standards is XSL -- eXtensible Stylesheet Language -- for displaying and manipulating XML-tagged documents. As other standards follow, watch their impact on the business world and your company. XML was the hot new technology of 1998, but 1999 promises to be the year when XML really starts to show its potential."

[May 28, 1999] "A formal model of pattern matching in XSL." By Philip Wadler [Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, wadler@research.bell-labs.com]. January 8, 1999. "I've written a brief formal description of patterns in XSL. The note presents a formal model of the semantics of pattern matching in XSL. The formal semantics brings to light issues that can be hard to spot in an English language description. For instance, here is how [the XSL specification] defines match: 'The result of the MatchExpr is true if, for any node in the document that contains the context of the MatchExpr, the result of evaluating the SelectExpr with that node as context contains the context of the MatchExpr. Otherwise the result is false.' As James Clark noted, this sentence is ambiguous: does `contains' qualify `document' or `node in the document'? (The intention is the former.) The formal specification given here presents the same information in just one line, and avoids the ambiguity. The semantics is formalized using sets. When a selection pattern is processed using for-each, the selected nodes are presented in document order. We use the usual notation for sets, including set comprehensions. See any standard textbook for an introduction, such as Halmos. . . Also in Postscript format. See the reference page: http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/~wadler/xsl/. See also Tony - a XML Parser and Pretty Printer. [local archive copy]

[May 28, 1999] "Haskell and XML: Generic Document Processing Combinators vs. Type-Based Translation." By Malcolm Wallace and Colin Runciman [University of York]. "Abstract: We present two complementary approaches to writing XML document-processing applications in a functional language. In the first approach, the generic tree structure of XML documents is used as the basis for the design of a library of combinators for generic processing: selection, generation, and transformation of XML trees. Careful design of the combinators leads to a set of algebraic laws, which in turn suggests the possibility of a more sophisticated implementation capable of optimised traversals of the data. The second approach is to use a type-translation framework for treating XML document type definitions (DTDs) as declarations of algebraic data types, and a derivation of the corresponding functions for reading and writing documents as typed values in Haskell." [local archive copy] See: HaXml - 'incorporating XmlLib, Haskell2Xml, and Xml2Haskell . . ."

[May 28, 1999] "SGML & XML Content Models." By Pekka Kilpeläinen [Department of Computer Science, P. O. Box 26 (Teollisuuskatu 23), FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland]. In Markup Languages: Theory & Practice Volume 1, Number 2 (Spring 1999), 53-76 (with 18 references). Abstract: "The SGML and XML standards use a variation of regular expressions called content models for modeling the markup structures of document elements. SGML content models may include so called and groups, which are excluded from XML. An and group, which is a sequence of subexpressions separated by an &-operator, denotes the sequential catenation of its subexpressions in any possible order. If one wants to shift from SGML to XML in document production, one has to translate SGML content models to corresponding XML content models. The allowed content models in both SGML and XML are restricted by a requirement of determinism, which means that a parser recognizing document element contents has to be able to decide without lookahead, which content model token to match with the current input token, while processing the document from left to right. It is known that not all SGML content models can be expressed as an equivalent XML content model. It is also known that transforming an SGML content model into an equivalent XML content model may cause an exponential growth in the length of the content model. We present methods for eliminating and groups and analyze formally the circumstances where they can be applied. We also consider the length of the resulting content models. We derive a tight bound of en! on the number of symbols in the result of eliminating an and group of n symbols, where e = 2.71828 . . . is the base of natural logarithms. We also show that minimal deterministic automata for recognizing an and group of n distinct element names contain 2ⁿ states and n2^n-1 transitions, excluding the failure state and transitions leading to it."

[May 27, 1999] "Nested Text-Region Algebra." By Jani Jaakkola and Pekka Kilpeläinen. University of Helsinki, Department of Computer Science. Technical Report C-1999-2, January 1999. Keywords: text searching, structured documents, SGML, XML. Abstract: "So-called region algebras operating on sets of text fragments have been proposed and implemented as query languages for text documents. Text documents often comprise nested regions like lists within lists or procedures within procedures. Earlier versions of region algebra do not support querying nested regions. We address this deficiency by proposing a new, unrestricted region algebra. The new algebra allows dynamic definition of nested regions. This makes it suitable for querying without any preprocessing documents, whose hierarchical structure is indicated by embedded markup. We demonstrate that this nested region algebra can be efficiently implemented, by presenting and analyzing algorithms for its operations. Especially, we show that any fixed nested region algebra expression on text of length n can be evaluated in the worst case in time O(n²), and in practice in linear time. Nested region algebra has been implemented in a publicly available Unix text search tool called sgrep." The document is available in Postscript format. [local archive copy]

[May 27, 1999] "Using ISO/IEC 13250 Topic Maps to Create The OII Knowledge Base." By Martin Bryan (The SGML Centre). May 1999. "To test and demonstrate the concepts in ISO/IEC 13250, the Topic Map standard, I have attempted to create a knowledge base that relates to one part of the Open Information Interchange (OII) web site that I maintain for the European Commission. I took as my example the section related to Document Interchange Standards, mainly because this is an example of a highly incestuous set of related standards, where associations play a key role. One of the things I wanted to do was to test how a Topic Map could be defined using XML rather than an HyTime-aware engine. (A related issue was how easy it would be to convert the existing HTML pages on the OII site to XML.) I also wanted to test how easy it was to create a displayable version of a topic map using an XML browser. As there are no XSL FO object browsers around at present I decided to use RivCom's RivComet plug-in to test the concept." See: "Topic Navigation Maps."

[May 27, 1999] "Microsoft Unveils First BizTalk Specs. Embraces XML to drive e-commerce." By Paula Rooney. In Computer Reseller News (May 25, 1999). "The draft specifications for BizTalk Framework Tags and BizTalk Framework Documents have been published on the BizTalk.Org Web site. BizTalk, a bevy of planned XML-based products, APIs and guidelines, is aimed to drive the adoption of XML for worldwide e-commerce applications, Microsoft officials said. Microsoft's XML-based BizTalk, which will enable businesses to exchange purchase orders, product information and pricing, and integrate business applications is touted to be platform- and language-neutral, and eventually will be incorporated into Microsoft Office, BackOffice, Windows and MSN, officials said at an e-commerce briefing last March." See "BizTalk Framework."

[May 27, 1999] "Microsoft Shows Off Next Exchange Release." By Mike Ricciuti. In CNET News.com (May 25, 1999). "At its Tech Ed conference this morning, Microsoft senior vice president Bob Muglia showed off new technology to be included in the next release of Exchange, code-named Platinum, intended to let users store a wider array of information within Exchange, and access it from a variety of devices. The technology, called Web Store, culls semistructured data, such as Web pages, Word document files, voice, and plain old email data in a new file system tuned for easy searching. Web Store is essentially a new file system, called EXIFS, which runs on Windows NT and augments NT's own NTFS, said Muglia. Like Office 2000 and other next-generation Microsoft products, Web Store makes extensive use of Extensible Markup Language (XML) for sharing and categorizing data. . . Muglia also previewed: a new set of document library and search services based on Platinum code-named Tahoe, which uses XML to span multiple servers; and Grizzly, the code name for planned Office 2000 development tools for building workflow applications based on Web and SQL Server data."

[May 26, 1999] "XML.org Premieres as Repository for the Spec." By Matthew Nelson. In InfoWorld (May 26, 1999). "OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, has founded the site XML.org as a repository for Extensible Markup Language (XML) information open to users and developers. XML.org will provide a registry and repository for the access and management of XML schemas, Document Type Definitions (DTD), and other XML-related information. 'People would use this to get information and education about XML and also information about specific industry or applications specifications through our registry and repository service,' said Laura Walker, executive director of OASIS. The site will also implement an architecture that employs existing and emerging standards for XML registries and repositories. OASIS announced XML.org Tuesday, the day after Microsoft announced its own Biztalk.org, but OASIS and the group's many partners, including IBM, believe the sites will not be in competition." See the XML.ORG and Biztalk announcements.

[May 26, 1999] "Taking Sides on XML." By Mike Ricciuti. In CNET News.com (May 26, 1999). "Microsoft's attempt to jump-start adoption of the Extensible Markup Language (XML) has drawn battle lines in the rapidly evolving market, in some ways reminiscent of the industry split over the Java programming language. On one side is Microsoft's BizTalk initiative and its BizTalk.org Web site, established this week as an XML design clearing house, developer resource, and repository for XML schemas. Microsoft has lined up an impressive list of BizTalk backers, including most of the major enterprise resource planning (ERP) software makers -- except Oracle -- e-commerce software and service providers like Ariba, and big-name technology consumers, such as Boeing. On the other side is XML.org, an XML developer portal launched this week by Oasis, a nonprofit consortium. Oasis, which has been building its portal for a year, has been endorsed by virtually all other big-name software makers, including IBM, Sun Microsystems, Novell, and Oracle. . ." [Ed. opinion/comment: This article appears to have over-stressed the notion of competitive "sides" and has (apparently) misinterpreted the significance of the timing in the OASIS announcement. Biztalk.org and XML.ORG are not working in the same space, AFAIK.]

[May 26, 1999] "OASIS Launches XML.ORG To Enable XML for E-Business." By George DiGiacomo. In Internet News.com (May 26, 1999). "OASIS, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, Wednesday unveiled XML.ORG, a global XML industry portal operated by a non-profit corporation and devoted to open information exchange. Central to XML.ORG will be an open industry XML registry and repository offering automated public access to XML schemas."

[May 26, 1999] "XML Early Adopter Study." Market research report by CAP Ventures, Inc. Available June 1999. "Who is actually adopting XML and why? Our new report has the answers. This study will provide: (1) Vital market information for software vendors and service providers, collected from 250 corporations; (2) Useful information for end-user companies who are evaluating the viability of XML; (3) The business and technology reasons organizations are employing XML; (4) Spending considerations and expectations for XML projects in 1999 and beyond." [For more information contact Linda Gagne at +1 781 871-9000, ext 131.]

[May 26, 1999] "Office 2000 & Rich Clients." By Frank Gilbane. In The Gilbane Report on Open Information & Document Systems Volume 7, Number 4 (April [May?] 1999), pages 1-5. "Before browsers came along there were two types of clients: general-purpose desktop applications, typically office suites, and specialized proprietary clients. Office suites had more popular interfaces, but proprietary clients had a lock on much of the mission critical information. As a result, most 'client/server' applications depended on proprietary clients. Browsers came along and dramatically changed the dynamics by becoming the new client of choice for client/server applications. Browsers were 'thin' (at first) and designed for presenting HTML, a poor kind of information. Now XML has the potential to open up access to 'rich' information, not just to browsers, but to all kinds of clients. The upcoming release of Microsoft's Office 2000 signals the start of a substantial shift in how we use will be integrating desktop clients in corporate applications. It now begins to make sense to consider an office suite application as a true client for more mission critical corporate applications Why? Because the new Office 2000 peer encoding HTML/XML format makes it possible to build solutions that roundtrip some rich XML information. Office 2000 doesn't go far enough for a lot of application needs - it couldn't have without getting too far ahead of W3C standards development. Nonetheless, as you'll see in our article this month, it is rich enough for some complex applications where application metadata sharing is the critical need."

[May 26, 1999] "You say Tomato, I say My:Tomato: Using Namespaces Within Your XML Documents." By Charlie Heinemann. In extreme xml [Microsoft MSDN Column] (May 20, 1999). ". . . the whole concept behind XML is to enable you to mark up your data semantically. This means that you can have tags, such as <purchase_order>, that describe the data within the tags. This works fine on a local scale (if the application scope is limited), but XML is made for a more global arena: the Web. In the vastness of the Web, <purchase_order> loses its specific meaning, since there are probably innumerable XML documents with <purchase_order> tags. These <purchase_order> tags can then refer to content that may be completely different in terms of logical and physical structure. The solution to such problems is the use of namespaces. By declaring tags to be of a specific namespace, the creator of the data can explicitly describe his tags, differentiating them from other tags of the same base name. For instance, with namespaces, we can differentiate between a 'purchase_order' element from Joe's Soda Supply and one from Mary's Canned Hams . . .".

[May 26, 1999] "What Happened at WWW8?" By Ken Sall. In Web Developers Virtual Library (May 24, 1999). ['I've completed my (long) report on the WWW8, the 8th International World Wide Web Conference.'] A "timely report of events from WWW8, the 8th International World Wide Web Conference. This conference marks the 10th anniversary of the World Wide Web, as measured from the original proposal from 1989. This report is the next best thing to attending the conference. Links to many of the significant presentations and keynotes are augmented by additional links not provided by the speakers. Topics include XML, Signed XML, RDF, XHTML, DOM, DOM2, XSL, XSLT, XSL-FO, CSS1, CSS2, CSS3, CSS-OM, web accessibility, SMIL, XMLNews, UIML, XPages, scalable vector graphics, metadata, querying, searching, linking, multimedia, and the Semantic Web, the name Tim Berners-Lee gives the Web as it enters its second decade."

[May 26, 1999] "Is Microsoft Waffling on Wireless Application Protocol?" By Jana Sanchez. In InfoWorld (May 25, 1999). "Although Microsoft announced earlier this month that it had joined the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Forum, an industry group developing and promoting the standard for wireless devices that access the Internet, the move was far from an acceptance of the Forum's vision. As a member of the Forum, Microsoft will now work with other WAP Forum members to accelerate the deployment of wireless mobile devices based on Web standards, Microsoft said in its statement. But Microsoft officials have not put to rest fears that it is rapidly moving ahead with its own plans for a competing service based on Windows CE. Under the WAP forum's plans, mobile operators will offer tailored services for wireless devices and content developers will re-author their Web content in Extensible Markup Language (XML) specifically for these devices. Only those re-authored pages will be available to users of WAP-enabled phones and services. Microsoft insists, however, that with rapid increases in bandwidth and technology advances, users of mobile phones may want to have access to any HTML-based Web page." For more on WAP Wireless Markup Language (WML), see "WAP Wireless Markup Language Specification."

[May 25, 1999] "Microsoft's Maritz: XML to anchor next-generation Web." By Cara Cunningham and Bob Trott. In InfoWorld (May 24, 1999). "At its TechEd conference held here this week, Microsoft's developer group vice president, Paul Maritz, gave attendees a glimpse of what the third-generation of the Web will look like, according to Microsoft. Today, the industry is in what Maritz calls the second generation of the Web, which focuses on the server and providing applications and data to users. In the next generation, the Web becomes an 'application integration architecture,' Maritz said, which fundamentally acts as a gateway for business-to-business transactions. In this scenario, Extensible Mark-up Language (XML) becomes the centerpiece. XML will do for transporting data what HTML has done for transporting Web pages, Maritz said, with Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM) providing the transportation of objects."

[May 25, 1999] "Introduction to XHTML, with Examples." By Alan Richmond. In WebDeveloper Network (May 17, 1999). "This article is based on the May 5th revision of the Working Draft of XHTML 1.0: The Extensible HyperText Markup Language, and my own experience implementing EncycloZine in XHTML. The next couple of sections overview a little of the 'theory' behind XHTML, which is needed since the language is an XML application, and as such, there's a few extra rules to know about. You might find it helpful to jump ahead to the examples first, to get a feel for how XHTML looks."

[May 24, 1999] "AT&T Marks The X On E-Commerce." By Mel Duvall. In Inter@ctive Week [Online] Volume 6, Number 21 (May 24, 1999), page 8. "AT&T has launched an ambitious project to use eXtensible Markup Language technology to develop a wide range of electronic commerce applications for internal use and for sale to its huge customer base. The communications giant said it plans to use eXtensible Markup Language (XML) - an expanded version of the HyperText Markup Language that facilitates data-based transactions by tagging various online elements - to leverage information stored in its legacy systems to develop e-commerce applications. AT&T also announced a partnership with XML pioneer DataChannel to develop a range of Web-based applications that AT&T aims to offer. Under the partnership, announced last week, AT&T Labs is expected to license DataChannel's XML framework and work with the company's engineers to build a variety of prototypes. Tony Blake, vice president at AT&T Labs, said one of the first projects is slated to be an application that can access product and services information from disparate internal databases and publish that information in a personalized format on the Web."

[May 24, 1999] "Choice Of Commerce Language Still Open." By Richard Karpinski And Mitch Wagner. In InternetWeek [TechWeb News] (May 24, 1999), page 7. "Several e-commerce interfaces will emerge next week, but it remains to be seen exactly which standards or dialects vendors and users will choose. Next week, CommerceNet will provide new details on its ECO Framework, an architecture to help businesses conduct commerce with one another. Also next week, Microsoft will provide new details on its BizTalk XML platform, and the RosettaNet group has set an early June date for the formal launch of its e-commerce standards. This week, Hewlett-Packard announced e-services, its vision for the next-generation Internet, designed to let partners do business without building complex, custom applications. E-speak, part of e-services, is a set of software interfaces along with open source Java software designed to let commerce systems negotiate services on the fly over the Internet. 'Everybody wants to work together on e-commerce, but they need a framework,' said Patricia Seybold Group analyst Geoffrey Bock. 'I think ECO will succeed.'"

[May 24, 1999] "DB2 hits its stride. IBM gains ground on favorite Oracle." By Maggie Biggs. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 21 (May 24, 1999). "IBM DB2 Enterprise Edition 6.1, Beta 1, gives an early indication of strong support to come for sites that need a solid database foundation upon which to support a wide array of data- and content-driven Web applications. Like Oracle, IBM is expanding support for Web technologies, inclusive of Java. DB2 6.1 is expected to support a stored procedure builder for Java, and DB2's administration tools have been nicely ported to Java in this beta version. Likewise, IBM is expanding DB2 support for the Extensible Markup Language (XML) with an included parser and a search facility. An XML extender is currently entering a separate beta program and is expected to go into production following the release of DB2 6.1."

[May 24, 1999] "DMTF to Hone Web Management." By Paul Krill. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 21 (May 24, 1999). "The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF), which boasts players such as Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard among its members, plans to release a proposed standard in June for using HTTP to exchange system and network management data over the Web. The DMTF, formerly the Desktop Management Task Force, also plans to define parts of a network management-related schema pertaining to the Directory Enabled Networks (DEN) initiative. Previously detailed components of WBEM include the Desktop Management Interface, for remote management of multiplatform desktops and servers, and the Common Information Model, providing a common understanding of data across different management systems. An Extensible Markup Language (XML) -based mechanism for exchanging management data within WBEM was announced in September 1998. See: "DMTF Common Information Model (CIM)."

[May 24, 1999] "Sun Stresses App-Server Independence with EJB 1.1." By Antone Gonsalves. In PC Week [Online] (May 20, 1999). "Sun Microsystems Inc. said Thursday that the latest specification for Enterprise JavaBeans focuses on making it easier to move EJB components among application servers. A draft release of EJB 1.1, available on Sun's Web site since last week, provides a better deployment descriptor as well as a mandatory implementation of entity beans, which was originally scheduled for EJB 2.0 at the end of next year. The deployment descriptor in EJB 1.1 more clearly defines the specifications for building EJB components, assembling the components and then deploying them in an application server, Betser said. The specification also has been reformatted into XML (Extensible Markup Language) text."

[May 24, 1999] "GM Builds XML-Driven Info Portal." By George Lawton. In Application Development Trends Volume 6, Number 5 (May 1999), page 14. See also 'DataChannel announces XML Framework, the first XML solution for cross-platform Enterprise Information Portals (EIP) With General Motors as the first Enterprise Customer and Microsoft as a Strategic Technology Partner" - "General Motors discovered the DataChannel XML Framework solution when they were looking for a way to transform their current IT infrastructure to a next-generation computing environment. Establishing a two-way Enterprise portal with partners and customers underscored several key GM strategic initiatives. "We knew XML would provide the common denominator for sharing data throughout our Enterprise," said Dennis Walsh, CTO of General Motors. . ."

[May 24, 1999] "Big Databases Get Small -- IBM DB2, Oracle To Be Released For Mobile And Embedded Devices." By Ellis Booker. In InternetWeek Issue 766 (May 24, 1999). "IBM, the company that for decades was synonymous with large enterprise data, last week introduced two new members of its flagship DB2 database family. The products are designed to help exchange data between small, Internet-friendly devices-such as laptops and palm computers-and enterprise applications. Meanwhile, Oracle spent the week talking about how its forthcoming Oracle8i Lite, which ships next month, will address the emerging need for tiny databases. New in DB2 v6.1, which will ship at the end of July, is support for LDAP and Linux, as well as enhanced Extensible Markup Language (XML) facilities for searching and data transformation, and a graphical development tool for distributed applications that helps create and debug Java stored procedures across servers."

[May 22, 1999] "Web Father Berners-Lee Shares Next-Generation Vision of The Semantic Web.". By Bob Metcalfe. In InfoWorld (May 24, 1999). "[Why XML is the wave of the future on the Web. . .] To The Semantic Web: In Toronto [WWW8], Berners-Lee told us that the old Web shares information among people using documents, whereas the new Semantic Web shares information among computers using data. For the old Web, he devised HTML to publish information for human consumption, carefully separating content from presentation. For The Semantic Web, Berners-Lee leads work on the Extensible Markup Language (XML), carefully separating content, presentation, and meaning (semantics) for software consumption. Having attended various XML sessions at WWW8, I'll say that for now we'll have to give Berners-Lee the benefit of the doubt. He is selling XML and RDF (Resource Description Framework) hard as long-term solutions to looming short-term problems. But for languages that are about semantics, they sure have a lot of syntax, with angle brackets (<TAG> ... </TAG>) galore. They are like some bad mathematics I've done -- lots of definitions and no theorems. Or, as one wag yelled at WWW8, 'Take two angle brackets and call me in the morning'."

[May 21, 1999] "Style Sheets: CSS, XSL and CSS-OM." By Bert Bos. Presentation Slides. From the Eighth International World Wide Web Conference (WWW8), Toronto, Canada. May 1999.

[May 21, 1999] "Framing the XSL Debate: An Editor's Note." By Tim Bray. From XML.com (May 20, 1999). Tim Bray supplies ". . . a few words on why we decided to publish Leventhal's view on XSL and why this kind of debate is good for the entire XML community."

[May 21, 1999] "XSL Considered Harmful." By Michael Leventhal. From XML.com (May 20, 1999). "XSL is far more complicated than it needs to be, and we don't need it, argues Leventhal. CSS and the DOM are just fine so waiting for XSL to become a standard is nothing but a distraction." See also Part 2: "This article demonstrates how a combination of CSS and DOM are sufficient to do what you'd need XSL for." See previously: "Formatting Objects Considered Harmful," By Håkon Wium Lie (Opera Software, Norway). April 15, 1999.

[May 20, 1999] "Generating XSL for Schema Validation." By Francis Norton. Version: 1999-05-20. Norton says: 'Inspired by Rick Jellife's note on using XSL to schema-validate XML documents, I have written a note on using XSL to generate such XSL schema validators directly from a schema, illustrated by a minimal example that can work with the IE5 parser. I've also indulged in some speculations about future uses of this approach, together with links to people already working in these directions.' Abstract: "An XSL stylesheet can be used to generate XSL validators from XML schemas. This document outlines the mechanics of this process and speculates on other uses for this technology. . . Why generate Schema Validators automatically? t is possible to code by hand an XSL stylesheet that will validate an XML document against some or all constraints of an XML schema. This note presents the case for generating such Validator stylesheets automatically by transforming an XML schema through an XSL validator-generator. The resulting XSL validator can then be used at run-time to validate XML documents that claim to conform to the original XML schema, returning an XML document that contains a list of invalid elements or is, for a valid document, empty. . . (NB: This note builds directly on the idea of using XSL as a validator for XML Schemas described by Rick Jellife in 'Using XSL for Structural Validation'.)" [local archive copy]

[May 20, 1999] "Index Design for Structured Documents Based on Abstraction." By Jyh-Herng Chow, Josephine Cheng, Daniel Chang, and Jane Xu. In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Database Systems for Advanced Applications. April 19 - 22, 1999, Hsinchu, Taiwan. 8 pages, 23 references. "HTML has been the standard format for delivering information on the web. However, automated information processing on these documents for data exchange and interoperability has been difficult. XML, a subset of SGML, has been proposed to be the next standard format that allows user-defined tags for better describing nested document structures and associated semantics. Operations on structured documents, such as searching in nested document structures, require new functions not currently available on most systems today. We describe a general framework for manipulating structured documents based on document abstractions. An abstraction is an approximation of an actual document, while possessing useful properties for analyses of interest. The framework provides a wide design space for tradeoff between cost and capability. This general framework can be applied to index design, document searching, and categorizations. We present this framework by focusing on indexing and searching of structured documents in the XML domain, and prove their soundness. We also address the issues of rich data types in XML documents." [Conclusion:] "Structured documents using general markups allow standardized semantics embedded in documents, and enable automated information processing for data exchange. However, current index schemes and search engines for content-based queries is not suitable for answering queries that involve understanding structures in the documents. We present a general framework based on document abstractions that provides a wide design space and a systematic approach to experimenting with the tradeoff of cost and capability for solving many problems dealing with structured documents. We have presented this framework in the area of indexing and searching, and we believe it can be applied to other problems, such as document summarization or categorization, which all involves some kind of abstraction on contents or structures. We would like to exploit the following areas in the future. First, how do we define ranked results from a structure query? This would be very useful when a user does not know any internal document structures at all. A related issue is to define the concept of weight when only partial matches are found. Second, our prototype currently requires manually creating user-defined functions for abstraction functions. It is very desirable to define a specification language for specifying abstractions that we want to apply to specific parts of documents. The language could be based on DTD with annotations for specifying the abstraction on certain elements. This will allow most work to be automated." [Correspondence: Jyh-Herng Chow, IBM Santa Teresa Lab, 555 Bailey Avenue, San Jose, CA 95141. Email: chowjh@us.ibm.com. Tel: (408) 463-2601. Fax: (408) 463-3834.].

[May 20, 1999] "B2B is Speedy for Biz-to-Biz Work." By James R. Borck. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 20 (May 17, 1999), page 51. "As Internet commerce continues to mature, the ability to foster cost-effective electronic data interchange (EDI), as well as advance business-to-business relationships through partnered systems, will become increasingly important to retaining a competitive edge. Extensible Markup Language (XML), with its database-like tagging capabilities and accessibility through nonproprietary Web protocols, is fast becoming recognized as the affordable alternative to the high cost of conventional EDI systems. One of the first products to leverage XML's capabilities, webMethods B2B, combines XML's structured data mapping with a secure server architecture to enable data interchange between disparate systems, and across corporate boundaries, without proprietary middleware. With recent improvements, such as an enhanced developer interface, support for x.509 digital certificates, and the addition of WebTap to better mediate Web communications, webMethods continues to set the pace in improving business-to-business transactions over the Internet."

[May 19, 1999] "Start-Up Software Can Customize Data Views." By Jeffrey Schwartz. In InternetWeek Issue 765 (May 17, 1999). "Thomson Financial Services wants to provide customized cuts of its data to 20 brokerages and investment banks. Since many analysts and brokers who subscribe to Thomson's news feeds access the data via the Web rather than through proprietary terminals, the next logical step is for Thomson to provide custom views to the data. MacFadden thinks he may have found an answer to his problem: Bow Street's Web Services Architecture (WSA) uses directory services to identify and authenticate users, and Extensible Mark-up Language (XML) to format data for specific consumers. WSA will allow companies to build Internet-based relationships which can be customized using XML components, which are assembled in real time based on profiles in directory services."

[May 19, 1999] "XML Europe '99: A Smashing Success!" By Dianne Kennedy. In XML Files: The XML Magazine Issue 14 (May 10, 1999). "This year, the name of GCA's major conference in Europe focused on "Information - Cheaper, Faster, Better!" It provided a wide variety of tutorials, outstanding keynotes, and comprehensive track content focusing on applications, trends, and technologies that support the use of both XML and SGML. Tracks included Application Technologies, Core Technologies, Information Technology Executive Briefings, and Graphics. The exposition ran from Tuesday through Thursday and provided our first view of some exciting new tools from European vendors."

[May 19, 1999] "Unvalidated XML: Is There a Place for It?" By Dianne Kennedy. In XML Files: The XML Magazine Issue 14 (May 10, 1999). [XML Europe '99, Granada Spain] "Tim Bray, the panel chair, began the plenary focusing on validation by presenting a bit of perspective. Validation, according to Bray, is based on DTDs. When XML was developed, everyone on the committee agreed that there are situations when DTDs are not required. At the first conference where XML was introduced (SGML '96), Tim Bray and Michael-Sperberg-McQueen conducted a poster session to explain why DTDs are not required. They pointed out that DTDs, according to the standard, were not only the <!ELEMENT and <!ATTLIST declarations but all the accompanying comments and prose that explain the intended use of the DTD. Do we validate it against that? Of course not. So the issue is, do we validate at all really?"

[May 19, 1999] "Adding XML to Databases; XML Europe '99." By Dianne Kennedy. In XML Files: The XML Magazine Issue 14 (May 10, 1999). "Steve Munsch began by discussing not only the explosion of the Internet but of wireless devices as well. According to Munsch the demand for access to enterprise information is growing rapidly. Today we want to process, store, query and exchange all sorts of enterprise information. According to Munsch, it is clear that XML provides the mechanism to do so. XML is strategic to Oracle because it can be used to represent all data. Oracle is interested in extending the datatypes that can be handled by their products and XML can help them do so. In addition to XML, itself, Oracle sees XML Schemas, XSL style sheets, and an XML query language as critical."

[May 19, 1999] "Standards Update; XML Europe '99." By Dianne Kennedy. In XML Files: The XML Magazine Issue 14 (May 10, 1999). [XML Europe 99, Granada Spain] "This year three major information standards organizations, OASIS (the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards), ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and W3C (the World Wide Web Consortium), joined forces to present the XML Europe Standards Update. Norbert Mikula from OASIS was joined in the Standards Update by ISO representative, Dr. Charles F. Goldfarb and by W3C representatives, Dan Connolly, Jon Bosak (Sun Microsystems) and Tim Bray. Each reported on their oganization's standards activities."

[May 19, 1999] "Book Review: Teach Yourself XML in 21 Days." By Dianne Kennedy. In XML Files: The XML Magazine Issue 14 (May 10, 1999). Review of the book by Simon North and Paul Hermans (ISBN: 1-57521-396-6; SAMS, a Division of Macmillan Computer Publishing, Indianapolis, Indiana 46209 USA). "I liked this book because it is designed to accommodate many different kinds of learners. It can be used to simply provide a basic overview. I also recommend Teach Yourself XML in 21 Days, as a great way to learn more about XML tools and to try them out. Screen shots and code samples help make using the XML tools easy. The Web site for the book includes all the code and working examples."

[May 19, 1999] "Query Languages [and the Web]." By Massimo Marchiori. Presentation Slides. From the Eighth International World Wide Web Conference (WWW8), Toronto, Canada. May 1999. For other references, see XML and Query Languages.

[May 19, 1999] "Report on W3C signed-XML99 Workshop." [WWW8: XML-DSig] By Joseph M. Reagle. Presentation Slides. From the Eighth International World Wide Web Conference (WWW8), Toronto, Canada. May 1999.

[May 19, 1999] "XML Update." By Dan Connolly [W3C XML Activity Lead]. Presentation Slides. From the Eighth International World Wide Web Conference (WWW8), Toronto, Canada. May 1999.

[May 18, 1999] "Beyond HTML. Building an XML Workbench." By Michael Floyd. In Web Techniques Magazine Volume 4, Issue 5 (May, 1999). "This month, I'll show you how to set up a workbench of tools to process XML on your Web server. It's a low-end solution. That is, I'm not assuming you have high-speed network access, or that you have administrative privileges on your server. All you need is a 56-kbps modem and support for Java servlets on your server. The tools I describe are portable, meaning you can set up a similar workbench under Mac, UNIX, or Windows. When you're finished installing the tools I describe in this column, you'll have everything you need to take advantage of XML on your Web site. And best of all, most of these tools are free. . . fter examining different approaches to XML, it's clear to me that XML will be used primarily under the covers of your Web server. Client-side processing of XML makes sense only in an intranet where you're certain that designated browsers support XML. I believe that in the future there will be significant advantages to client-side XML in, say, an all-Microsoft environment. For the heterogeneous world, however, server-side XML just makes more sense. There's a lot to chew on here. But if you're serious about using XML on your Web site, the effort will be worth it."

[May 18, 1999] "More Than A Language -- XML Is A Security Tool Too!" By Mark Merkow. In Internet.com WebReference (May 13, 1999). "XML is at the root of new security approaches for business-to-business e-commerce. See what IBM and the FSTC are doing to enable e-commerce for the fast track to widespread successes. Like a panacea, everyone is turning to XML to solve even the stickiest of Internet communications problems. The latest significant news comes from IBM with the announcement of their XML Security Suite. At the heart of the suite you'll find DOMHASH as a reference implementation for computing digital signatures on XML documents. IBM is offering the XML Security Suite as the basis for the digital signature discussions occurring at both the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). IBM provides support for element-wise encryption on XML data, digital signatures on entire XML documents, and access control features that aren't possible under SSL transport layer security." See also the IBM announcement.

[May 18, 1999] "Qu'est ce que XML? - Introduction à XML." By Joel Amoussou. From InterDoc. Explique en détail la syntaxe du langage de même que quelques notions de XLink, XPointer et XSL. 51 pages/slides. [local archive copy] See also by Joel Amoussou, "XML dans le transport aérien."

[May 18, 1999] "E-Commerce Tools, Standards Alleviate Chaos." By Richard Karpinski. In Information Week (May 14, 1999). "Managing catalog content is becoming amajor sore point for IT managers as newvenues, such as storefront sites, extranets, and procurement hubs, proliferate for Web-catalog content. Several recent developments aim to bring some order to the chaos. Microsoft and Ariba this week agreed to work together on XML-based e-commerce standards that could potentially alleviate some problems for catalog providers." On the latter, see the announcement: "Microsoft and Ariba Join Forces to Accelerate Adoption of Business-to-Business E-Commerce Standards. Companies to Cooperate in Developing BizTalk Schema for E-Commerce."

[May 17, 1999] "XML + Directory Servers = Web Servers." By David F. Carr. In Internet World (May 17, 1999), page 21. [Enterprise Web.] 'The former CEO of Tivoli Systems thinks he has a simpler, less costly alternative to Web-hosted versions of traditional enterprise applications. . .' - "As CEO of network systems management vendor Tivoli Systems Inc., Frank Moss profited from how hard it was to make enterprise systems work together. In his new life as a backer of startups, Moss is looking to capitalize on more cooperative systems. Moss took Tivoli to a successful IPO in 1995 and stayed after it was sold to IBM in 1996 for $743 million. He left last July, and is now chairman of both Bowstreet Software Inc. of Portsmouth, N.H., and Agillion Inc. of Austin, Texas. Moss has latched onto XML, he said, 'not just as another markup language, but as a stimulus to move away from traditional applications. Enterprise applications have been very expensive to buy and very complex to manage, with very little that's standard or interchangeable between them. Now we see an opportunity for getting rid of applications and replacing them with something different, which we think is Web services.' The Web services concept echoes Sun Microsystems' 'Webtone' and the activities of application server providers (ASPs) that offer subscriptions to remotely hosted PeopleSoft and SAP apps. Bowstreet is creating a product, to be launched this summer, that uses XML and directory servers to drive highly customized extranets, created by tying together Web services rather than coding applications. Agillion is still under wraps, but Moss hinted it will be an ASP more attuned to the Web services concept."

[May 17, 1999] "WavePhore aims to simplify integration of news feeds for Web publishers. But the old guard snubs its effort to set a new standard." By Mark Walter and Matt McKenzie. In Seybold Report on Internet Publishing Volume 3, Number 9 (May, 1999), pages 21-23. [This month's free SRIP sample article.] "Last month at Internet World, news aggregator WavePhore launched NewsPak, a Web service that delivers a variety of news feeds tagged in a single, normalized XML format. While its service promises to simplify news syndication, WavePhore's attempt to position its XMLNews format as a new standard for newswires was rebuffed by newspaper groups. Well-known in standards-setting circles, Megginson is principal of Megginson Technologies, chair of the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) XML Information Set Working Group, and maintainer of the widely implemented Simple API for XML (SAX). Megginson called his spec XMLNews and launched XMLnews.org just before WavePhore announced NewsPak at Internet World. In addition to support from WavePhore, XMLNews is backed by Corel, which announced it will support XMLNews in WordPerfect Office 2000, including a stylesheet template for WYSIWYG editing. Since then, however, the XMLNews initiative has drawn flak from a group of press agencies and newspapers that developed NITF [News Industry Text Format], the newswire DTD on which XMLNews is based. . ." See also the April 05, 1999 announcement for "XMLNews".

[May 17, 1999] "Cisco's System: Blending Publishing Technologies for a Distributed Enterprise." By Liora Alschuler. In Seybold Report on Internet Publishing Volume 3, Number 9 (May, 1999), pages 8-12. "An $8 billion seller of Internet operating systems, routers, and ATM equipment, with offices in over 200 countries, Cisco Systems has been a pioneer in doing business online. The company takes 76% of its orders and publishes all of its documentation through its Web site. This case study examines Cisco's Web publishing system, where the scale and pace of the enterprise are the dominant design criteria. . . The core of the current publishing system is a Documentum document-management system housing about 100,000 objects, about 20% of it in technical manuals and the balance marketing collateral. Cisco is working with Documentum on many of the features of their SGML and XML support that will show up in future releases of their EDMS. Documentum, a leading supplier of document-management systems for high-end publishers, has been gradually putting into place an infrastructure that supports high-end SGML and XML publishing applications. Though the set-up of an XML-aware Documentum system such as the one in place at Cisco requires a fair amount of customization today, the amount of customization required for new customers is going down, as Documentum gradually puts its building blocks into place and leverages what it learns in early implementations. Overall, Documentum is continuing its strategy to develop an infrastructure to support key verticals where SGML and XML publishing is required. . ."

[May 17, 1999] "InfoAccess updates HTML Transit. Generates custom tags, more precise Web layouts." By Matt McKenzie and Mark Walter. In Seybold Report on Internet Publishing Volume 3, Number 9 (May, 1999), page 27. "InfoAccess has introduced a new version of HTML Transit, the company's well-known Web conversion and publishing tool. Transit 4.0 now serves either as a stand-alone product or as a client for the company's Transit Central product, a workgroup- or enterprise-level version of Transit that manages document conversion and publishing for multiple users. Transit 4.0 supports XML in two key areas: site navigation and document translation. When Transit converts a document, it now generates an XML 'map file' that allows an XML parser to understand the structure of the site and to generate a tree that a script or other application can access. This would, for example, allow a site to offer conditional navigation based on a user's access level or browser version. Transit 4.0 also includes an 'XML-compliant output' option that creates well-formed XML by generating balanced tags and removing extraneous HTML elements. The product does not include its own parser for validating XML against a DTD." See the Web site for "HTML Transit and Transit Central 4.0 Beta."

[May 17, 1999] "Groupware Service Leverages Java Apps and XML Clients ." By Michael Vizard. In InfoWorld (May 14, 1999), page 8. "A start-up company next week will launch a new IT service designed to let users collaborate on projects on an ad hoc basis by leveraging a Java-based application that supports Extensible Markup Language (XML) clients. Aiming at department-level applications, X-Collaboration Software plans to give organizations an alternative to client/server applications, such as Lotus Notes, by providing a service that leverages newer Web technologies that are simpler to manage and maintain. . . 'We're actually using it to replace e-mail,' Wartak added. The front-end application for the company's namesake X-Collaboration.com service is a 1.5MB XML browser. In conjunction with this XML browser, documents that support the XML file format, such as the productivity applications in Microsoft's Office 2000 release, can be stored on servers running at X-Collaboration headquarters."

[May 17, 1999] "Dun & Bradstreet integrate disparate data with XML." By Erik Vlietinck. In Thinking Business (May 15, 1999). "Dun & Bradstreet Global Access has cooked up a tool kit the customer can obtain for free. It hides the XML plumbing from the user. It exposes a scriptable object model to the programmer. 'It's not terribly complicated,' says Peterson. 'Basically, it's a request/response protocol called Dun & Bradstreet Global Exchange (DGX) modelled on OFX (Open Financial Exchange), the Intuit/Microsoft standard that governs home banking.' . . .Dun & Bradstreet not only chose XML because it's less expensive than other solutions, or because it's platform-independent. 'An added value is that it's completely open, which means our customers can access the database now with an SSL-capable Web scripting tool to send requests and any XML parser to unpack responses,' says Shumpert. 'We wanted to make sure the customer-facing part would be identical to all our users'."

[May 17, 1999] "XML Basics." By Elliotte Rusty Harold. Slides from SD 99 West Seminar [Wednesday May 12, 1999]. May 17, 1999.

[May 17, 1999] "Intro to XML." By Elliotte Rusty Harold. Slides from SD 99 West XML Tutorial [Monday May 10, 1999]. May 17, 1999.

[May 17, 1999] "XML: Missing Link for B2B E-Commerce." By David Ritter. In Intelligent Enterprise Volume 2, Number 7 (May 11, 1999), pages 30-37. "At least one of your competitors is evaluating XML right now to streamline its partner relationships beyond the wildest dreams of EDI proponents. What are you waiting for?. The potential for the open exchange of information directly among applications-a critical requirement for business-to-business e-commerce-is largely untapped. However, Bow Street and many others are betting that the Extensible Markup Language (XML) will overtake electronic data interchange (EDI), enabling technology that drives the transition to a more open form of electronic business. . . The early XML leaders emphasize that companies should take a long-term view of the technology. They see tremendous benefits from standard, interactive data, but acknowledge that development and wide adoption will take time. But today, someone in your industry is probably hard at work on a DTD to describe the products you build or sell. Your competitors are taming their internal knowledge management dragons. Companies are getting timely, accurate data out of their SAP databases and onto their Web sites. What are you doing while all this is happening?" [local archive copy]

[May 17, 1999] "IBM, SAP: XML To Boost Security, Integration." By Charles Babcock and Mel Duvall. In Inter@ctive Week [Online] Volume 6, Number 18 (May 03, 1999), page 22. "IBM last week unveiled the first security scheme for the eXtensible Markup Language that takes advantage of its ability to define and protect individual elements on a page. Software giant SAP, on the other hand, plans this week to announce the acquisition of an XML start-up that has been working on extending legacy applications to the Web. XML is essentially a set of document tags that carry specific information about a file. The XML Security Suite from IBM (www.ibm.com) will put tools into the hands of developers for encrypting specific fields of a business form, such as the amount of a salary or contract, while the remainder of the form is transmitted in unencrypted text. In a Web-based transaction, the buyer's credit-card number is encrypted on an XML form, while the rest is unchanged."

[May 17, 1999] "Toolbox: XML Talk." By [Staff]. In Inter@ctive Week [Online] Volume 6, Number 18 (May 03, 1999), page 52. "With the rising popularity of the eXtensible Markup Language, companies are rushing to deliver tools for developing and handling XML apps. Microsoft and DataChannel co-developed an XML Java parser for delivering XML documents within Java applications. It features a complete set of World Wide Web Consortium interfaces; simple Application Programming Interface for XML, to optimize performance parsing of large documents; Java exception and error handling; and an eXtensible Stylesheet Language."

[May 17, 1999] "Microsoft recruits third-party allies." By Cara Cunningham, Dana Gardner, Ted Smalley Bowen, and Ed Scannell. In InfoWorld (May 14, 1999). "Microsoft is working with new-found friends, such as Allaire, by encouraging support of DNA and relying on their bridging technologies to open its COM+ services to the cross-platform world. XML will also factor into Microsoft's Internet-commerce strategy, according to sources. Officials at TechEd will outline a set of XML schemas that are part of the company's BizTalk framework to allow communication among business rules and platforms such as SAP."

[May 17, 1999] "XML by the Book. A roundup [review] of texts both good and bad." By Elizabeth Powell Crowe. In Computer Currents Magazine (May 11, 1999). [nternet Basics.] Reviews of XML: A Primer, The XML Handbook, and XML for Dummies.

[May 17, 1999] "Bluestone Enables XML on the AS/400." By Stephen Swoyer. In Midrange Systems Volume 12, Number 6 (April 26, 1999), pages 19-20. "Recently, another technology called Extensible Mark-up Language (XML) has come to the fore as a means for tying disparate platforms together. With the introduction of its Bluestone XML Suite, AS/400 EJB pioneer Bluestone Software Inc. (www.bluestone.com) becomes one of the first ISVs to deliver upon the promise of XML on the AS/400 platform. Accordingly, Bluestone XML-Server provides the dynamic XML server 'middle-tier' link that integrates data sources with XML documents. Bluestone Visual-XML, on the other hand, is a developer toolkit that helps companies build XML-based applications by automatically generating document type definitions and other XML documents based on user-defined data sources. Visual-XML can also bind XML documents to data sources by means of a graphical drag-and-drop API that generates Java and/or XML code."

[May 17, 1999] "Manage.Com Puts XML to Work." By Jeff Caruso. In Network World Volume 16, Number 20 (May 05, 1999), page 33. "Manage.Com last week unveiled one of the first applications of Extensible Markup Language (XML) technology in management software - a tool that monitors transactions across firewalls. FrontLine e.M provides a way for a company to configure devices, diagnose problems and measure performance - even if the gear resides on the other side of a firewall. Just as HTML is a standard way of presenting a document, XML offers a standard way of presenting tables of information. When coupled with a database using the standard Common Information Model (CIM), XML opens the door for sharing management information across the Web. Manage.Com's Web site will have a CIM database, called e.Registry, which will contain information about how to manage routers, switches and other devices. The database will also include rules for managing e-mail and other applications. Users of FrontLine e.M would subscribe to Manage.com's e.Connect service, which would let them access e.Registry via XML. The software downloads information from e.Registry about how to manage new devices."

[May 17, 1999] "Microsoft's XML Strategy Generates Doubts, Ire." By Ellen Messmer. In Network World Volume 16, Number 19 (May 10, 1999), pages 54, 60. "Critics contend that Microsoft is trying to pollute the Extensible Markup Language (XML) the same way it polluted Java. . . The company unveiled its grand e-commerce plan in March, an initiative squarely centered on BizTalk. . ."

[May 14, 1999] "Introduction to XML For Web Developers. Part 3: The DTD ." By Selena Sol. In internet.com [WebDeveloper] (May 03, 1999). {Part 3 in a four-part tutorial.] "As you have seen in the previous sections of this tutorial, there are many rules you must follow in order to assure that your XML document is well-formed. But even when you write well-formed XML documents, you're not quite out of the woods! Making your document well-formed is only half the battle. You must also make sure that the document is valid. This third and final section deals with making your well-formed XML document valid by using a DTD." See also the main Table of Contents for this three-part tutorial article.

[May 14, 1999] "HTML-XML: The Best of Both Worlds. HTML is Headed for Marriage with XML." By Jim Rapoza. In PC Week [Online] (May 13, 1999). "A new working draft from the World Wide Web Consortium, released last week, describes many of the capabilities and attributes of XHTML 1.0 (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language), which will eventually replace traditional HTML. XHTML will leverage XML to provide structure and increased extensibility and will be modular, allowing authors to easily use subsets of the language when necessary. Most importantly, XHTML enables site authors to support a variety of end-user devices, from Palm devices to set-top boxes, by providing author-once, run-anywhere capability. With XHTML, large Web sites and corporate intranets and extranets will be able to provide content displays that work more effectively on nonstandard browser clients. Electronic commerce sites will be able to provide richer, more-interactive forms using the new form options in XHTML. PC Week Labs recommends that administrators of complex or large sites evaluate the XHTML draft and begin planning for change."

[May 14, 1999] "Procurement, Nets and Butterflies: Content Applications for New Web Business Models." By Mary Laplante. In The Gilbane Report on Open Information & Document Systems Volume 7, Number 3 (March 1999), pages 1-6. "The last couple of months have seen a deluge of announcements about XML and e-commerce. Most of these announcements have been from vendors promising support for one or another of the XML-based standards being proposed. What is the difference between CBL and cXML? How does Microsoft's BizTalk fit in? What do all these have to do with creating, managing, or publishing content? What is the effect on other enterprise systems? As we said in our January issue, e-commerce system implementations are starting to take-off. These systems will need to be integrated with a wide variety of both front and back office applications - too many for an API-based strategy to handle on its own. Content that is rich and "self-descriptive" enough to be processed by many different applications in different locations is needed to support electronic catalogs and emerging web commerce business models. Successful XML e-commerce standards will influence back-end content systems that many of you are building or managing. We'll be helping you think about these issues as things heat-up. Mary Laplante joins us this month with some thoughts on the Ariba.com Network and cXML."

[May 14, 1999] "Dynamic Content, XML, and Electronic Commerce." By Frank Gilbane. In The Gilbane Report on Open Information & Document Systems Volume 7, Number 1 (January 1999), pages 2-5. "E-commerce will be the archetypal application of the next few years. The earlier archetypal systems we discussed were 'document' oriented, but that qualifier is no longer relevant. Use e-commerce functionality as a yardstick." [Note also that with Volume 7, Number 1 the Gilbane Report changed to a monthly format, and the editorial team "will be adding Web access so that we can better help you keep up with the rapid changes in our industry. . . As for the 'New Gilbane Report': Well, [it's] not that new. The content of our report remains the same. Our previous subtitle 'On Open Information & Document Systems' sounds a bit old-fashioned these days, but is still an accurate portrayal of our coverage - it is the terminology that has changed. 'Open' referred to the use of content encoding standards and was largely a code word for SGML when we started. We believed then, as we believe now, that for information technology to truly advance it was more important to focus on making information inherently easier to share than to spend all our efforts on integrating products. Product integration provides very little benefit without information integration. Today XML is actually helping us with both kinds of integration more than we would have predicted. 'Information & Document Systems' was our way of making the point that it didn't makes sense to limit information management strategies to either structured (data) or unstructured (document) information. Useful information for the vast majority of corporate applications requires some combination of both. Today 'knowledge' and 'content' have evolved as politically correct terms largely because they don't discriminate between structured and unstructured information."]

[May 14, 1999] "Representación y organización de periódicos digitales con el lenguaje XML. [Representation and organization of digital newspapers in XML.]" By D. M. Llidó, M. J. Aramburu, R. Berlanga, and I. Sanz. In [Proceedings of] IV Congreso ISKO-España - EOCONSID '99 [ISKO - International Society for Knowledge Organization] Granada, 22 - 24 de abril de 1999, pages 171-178. The paper shows how the publication of digital newspapers in XML enhances the opportunity for development of new tools to store, locate, and search information on the Web. [local archive copy]

[May 13, 1999] "XML Notation Schemas." By Rick Jelliffe. May 12, 1999. "This note is for discussion purposes by the W3C Schema Working Group. It provides an alternative characterization of the schema problem. This provides a fromwork for addressing many issues not handled in the first working draft of the XML Schema specification. The proposal builds on: (1) recent discussions on XHTML and text/XML in the ietf-xml-mime mailing list; (2) discussions of internationalization in the w3c-i28n-ig mailing list; (3) Document Resource Locators, a proposal to allow ancilliary material to be linked to documents, primarily as a framework for XCS; (4) Using XSL as a Structure Validation Language, which characterizes document validation as as stylesheet issue and points out that XSL's pattern language allows validation on very different criteria to SGML's content model approach; (5) XCS (Extensible Character Set), a proposal on the information required to make the Private Use Area (PUA) useable in XML; (6) XMLBind, partially presented at WWW7, which divided the schema issue into two parts. . ." [local archive copy]

[May 13, 1999] "Extending UML with Aspects: Aspect Support in the Design Phase." By Junichi Suzuki and Yoshikazu Yamamoto. Department of Computer Science, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Keio University. May 1999. 6 pages, with 15 references. Submitted to: The 3rd Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) Workshop at ECOOP '99 [Lisbon, June 14, 1999]. Abstract: "Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) has been considered a promising abstraction principle to reduce the problem of code tangling and make software structure clean and configurable. AOP has been applied to various domains such as object interaction, memory management, persistence, distribution, fault tolerance, concurrency, etc. An aspect in the sense of AOP is a means to specify policy or strategy for software functional components, which is orthogonal to them. Separating aspects from functional components avoids that non-functional components cross-cut and therefore tangle groups of functional components. This explicit separation of concern allows to manage software complexity well and improve its quality by increasing modularity beyond an object in the sense of Object-Oriented Programming (OOP). This paper addresses the aspect support in the design level while it has been focused mainly in the implementation/coding phase. We propose an extension to Unified Modeling Language (UML) to support aspects properly without breaking the existing UML specification. This allows developers to recognize and understand aspects in the design phase explicitly. Also, we propose a XML-based aspect description language, UXF/a. It provides the interchangeability of aspect model information between development tools such as CASE tools and aspect weavers. Section 2 of the paper describes the benefits of capturing aspects in the design level, and expressing them in the XML format. Section 3 describes our extension to the UML metamodel. Section 4 presents our aspect description language based on XML. We conclude with a note on future work in Section 5 and 6." [local archive copy].

[May 13, 1999] "Sun Delivers Draft of EJB 1.1 Spec." By Dana Gardner. In InfoWorld (May 12, 1999). "Sun Microsystems released a public draft of its Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) 1.1 API specification this week that includes support for Entity Beans and adds to the scalability of application servers that adhere to it, the company reported. Code-named Moscone, the newest Java specification is designed to improve assembly and deployment of distributed applications and offer tighter cross-server portability of distributed applications, Sun said. The EJB 1.1 specification is due for arrival in June in time for the JavaOne conference beginning June 14 in San Francisco. The specification, Thomas said, improves EJB security by aligning it with the Java 2, Standard Edition, security model, and it begins to use Extensible Markup Language (XML) to describe EJB deployment options. The XML technology is of significant value, said a maker of EJB application servers, SilverStream, which added that it will deliver a server that supports EJB 1.1 in June at JavaOne. In EJB 1.1, a single file groups together all of the EJBs, and the XML descriptor files define the run-time service requirements of an Enterprise Bean in a more flexible manner. It adds to the scaling the speed of the server overall."

[May 13, 1999] "Microsoft's Bosworth Talks Up XML." By Jeff Walsh. In InfoWorld (May 12, 1999). "Microsoft general manager Adam Bosworth spoke frankly and openly about the emerging role of the Extensible Markup Language (XML) as the lingua franca for data exchange on the Web here Wednesday afternoon during his afternoon keynote address at Software Development West. Bosworth's speech honed in on the problems which led to the groundswell of support for XML, the three-tier Web application architecture Microsoft and other vendors support, and how XML can be used by end-users to better find information on the Web. Bosworth, who is now part of the SQL Server team at Microsoft, said the Web changed all of the rules that had been developed in the client/server world, because the Web demanded things be more basic. 'What we learned from the Web is that easy and simple beats efficient and complex,' Bosworth said. Most of Bosworth's keynote pushed the notion of standards, and delivered examples of XML in business-to-business communication."

[May 13, 1999] "SilverStream Puts the Shine on App Servers." By Jeff Walsh. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 19 (May 10, 1999). SilverStream Software will announce future directions for its Web application server product line this week at its first user conference in Orlando, Fla. On the connectivity front, the company will be demonstrating a new data source object with support for the Extensible Markup Language (XML). The object will enable a SilverStream Web application to hook into an auto-parts catalog stored online in XML, for example. The Web application will be able to query the XML data using the Extensible Query Language, or XQL, and pull the results back into the Web application." See also: "Object Design and SilverStream Announce Strategic Partnership to Deliver XML-Based Web Applications. The Companies have Integrated the SilverStream Application Server and Object Design's eXcelon XML Data Server."

[May 13, 1999] "The Role of XML." By Robert Craig. In ent - The Independent Newspaper for Windows NT Enterprise Computing [Online] (May 05, 1999), pages 38, 40. "XML has become a hot buzzword in both database and Internet circles. Of course the big question you are probably asking yourself is, 'Why should I care about XML?' The short answer is that XML is important because it provides a platform-independent mechanism for sharing heterogeneous data between applications via the Web. If you plan to create an application that will use data from heterogeneous sources -- including non-relational databases -- especially if it's going to work on the Web, then you should take a look at XML. The bottom line is that if you're looking to create an application for the Web that needs to send, retrieve and display heterogeneous data within a browser context, XML is a technology you should be evaluating."

[May 13, 1999] "Oracle Shares Plans for OAS and XML." By Brian Ploskina. In ent - The Independent Newspaper for Windows NT Enterprise Computing [Online] (May 05, 1999), pages 18, 23. "Moving ahead with initiatives in Java and XML, Oracle Corp. announced the beta version of Oracle Application Server 4.0.8 (OAS) and new plans for its XML-enabled infrastructure. The company reported this news at Spring Internet World in Los Angeles. The latest version of OAS aims to be a comprehensive Java platform by adding support for Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB), Java Server Pages (JSP) and Java Servlets. The beta is available at http://technet.oracle.com. Oracle's Lindars says larger companies such as Oracle, Microsoft and IBM Corp. will step in now and make XML part of each company's overall offering. Lindars says this trend in the market is required for technology such as XML to move forward. 'We're already working on the standards for XML querying and others,' Lindars say. 'It's going mainstream and we can provide it mainstream because we have the components to support it.' Oracle's announcement states it will use an XML-enabled message broker capability for a scalable, reliable infrastructure that will allow businesses to intelligently process, transform and route XML-based information. Lindars says there is already XML support in Oracle8i in the form of an XML parser so it can parse and store data so it's ready to be queried. Oracle also says OAS will become a central component of Oracle's XML-enabled Internet platform."

[May 13, 1999] "Does EDI Have an Adversary in XML -- Or an Ally?" By Edmund X. DeJesus. In Government Computer News (May 03, 1999). "Since the advent of Web commerce and corporate intranets, pundits have predicted the demise of Electronic Data Interchange. The predictions are usually gleeful in tone; EDI's characteristics -- inflexibility, incomprehensibility and intractability -- and roots in the mainframes of big business and big government are anathema to the Web-minded. Extensible Markup Language, a flexible subset of the more formidable Structured Generalized Markup Language, supports a variety of user-defined structures and characteristics. To Web-enabled EDI supporters, these virtues make XML appear a shining knight, ready to slay the EDI dragon. But enterprise EDI users see that the Web does not threaten EDI. Rather, it offers new opportunities for extending its life and usefulness."

[May 13, 1999] "Electronic Commerce." By Richard W. Walker. In Government Computer News (May 03, 1999). "Another key program is the Catalogue Interoperability Pilot, a collaboration among the EC Program Office, the Federal Interagency Acquisition Internet Council and CommerceNet, a nonprofit consortium of Internet companies. The idea is to promote interoperability between electronic catalogs across the Internet. A notable facet of the pilot is that it is pushing the use of Extensible Markup Language, or XML, the new buzzword in e-commerce. 'In the next decade, XML will completely change the landscape of e-commerce and electronic data interchange,' said Donald Willis, CEO of IPNet Solutions Inc. of Newport Beach, Calif. IPNet recently incorporated XML-based data import and export functions into its e-commerce products."

[May 13, 1999] "Portals of Plenty." By Jack Vaughan. In Application Development Trends (April 1999) [page 88]. Dev Trends. ". . . I recently got to take a look at the work of Perspecta 3.0 from Perspecta Inc. It is a nifty means to bring structure to unstructured data, and somewhat indicates where XML may be headed (and if you go to http://demographic.perspecta.com/cia.jhtml, you can see this applied to public CIA data). There are many more worthwhile offerings to consider. . . "

[May 13, 1999] "Start-up aims to make e-commerce easy. Bowstreet to combine directory, XML technologies." By Robin Schreier Hohman. In Network World (May 03, 1999), page 5. "Start-up Bowstreet Software this week will unveil plans to build a framework that will make it easier, faster and less expensive for users to create business-to-business applications over the Internet. By using a directory such as Novell Directory Services, along with the Extensible Markup Language (XML), disparate systems can be pulled together to easily build applications, without the usual associated technical expertise, personnel and expense of today's electronic data interchange applications. XML provides a standard language for formatting Web data." See: "Bowstreet Breaks eBusiness Bottleneck: Moving Complex Sales & Distribution to The Web. Fortune 500 Customers Rally Around Bowstreet's New Web Services Architecture. IBM and Novell To Partner with Bowstreet to Ensure Leading-Edge Directory and XML Integration."

[May 12, 1999] "Real-time XML Editor: A Technology Preview." By Brian E. Travis. In <TAG> Volume 13, Number 4 (April 1999), pages 1-4. "Architag President, Brian Travis, asserts that XML is best learned on the fly, where the validity or well-formedness of XML tags can be monitored as fast as they are applied to a document. To illustrate, he entreats readers to create their own documents using Architag International's Real-Time XML editor. Travis explains how XML's Document Object Model (DOM), its simple syntax and a little Javascript permit programmers to write parsers which function in the most compact of spaces. Architag's XML editor, for example, operates as a COM object called from a web page using Microsoft Internet Explorer 5. This demonstration shows the versatility of XML. The editor will check the well-formedness of an XML document just as easily as it checks your document against a document type definition or other schema definition. The demonstration has only been tested using Microsoft Internet Explorer 5. To get started with real-time XML editing, there are three simple steps: (1) Load Microsoft Internet Explorer 5. You can find it at http://microsoft.com/ie. (2) Load the editor. It can be found at http://tagnewsletter.com/1303/XMLEdit.htm. (3) Start typing!"

[May 12, 1999] "Do You 'Get' XML?" By Brian E. Travis. In <TAG> Volume 13, Number 4 (April 1999), pages 1, 7. "XML has incredible potential to enhance the interchange of information. However, it is important to understand when a good tool becomes an impediment. The <TAG> managing editor offers sound advice to maximize the utility of XML, and postulates when the tool truly may be out of its element. . . With XML, there is a shallower learning curve [than for SGML], and people are trying new things that were just not possible with the large footprint required for an SGML parser. My advice is to apply XML to anything you want, but be prepared to drop it in favor of another technology if XML isn't a good fit. I use the concept of "The XML Hammer." If a hammer is all you have, everything looks like a nail. However if you think of XML as just another tool in your toolbox, and you know how to use it, you can apply it where it is appropriate. But sometimes a screwdriver works better.

[May 12, 1999] "Alternatives to XML DTDs: Four Proposals." By Bob DuCharme. In <TAG> Volume 13, Number 4 (April 1999), pages 5-7. "In a follow-up to his analysis last month of XML's Document Type Definition (DTD) declaration syntax, Bob DuCharme focuses on the status of four alternative DTD schemas proposed by the W3C: XML-Data, XML Document Content Description (DCD), Schema for Object-oriented XML (SOX), and Document Definition Markup Language (DDML). In particular, DuCharme outlines the history and priorities behind each schema, and considers the functionality each affords to applications that manipulate metadata structured in XML. The article discusses some features that the W3C Schema Working Group members could add to the schema proposal that they'll draft after studying the four existing proposals." [See now also "World Wide Web Consortium Releases First Working Drafts of XML Schema Specification. W3C Members Collaborate to Improve and Standardize Needed Technology."]

[May 12, 1999] "Archive-Name: sgml/not-the-faq Posting-Date: 1 April 1999 Posting-Frequency: sporadic." By Joe English, [jenglish@flightlab.com. Not the comp.text.sgml Frequently Asked Questions List Copyright (c) 1997, 1999 Joe English. All rights reserved. There are lots of wrongs in this document, and those are all reserved too. Author bears no responsibility for any other reservations you might have. Standard disclaimers apply. For external use only. If irritation, rash, or swelling occurs, discontinue use immediately. Void where prohibited.] In <TAG> Volume 13, Number 4 (April 1999), pages 8-10. "Joe English's sagacious XML/SGML FAQ goes where our April readers just might fear to tread...." [mostly April 1st spoof] See a replica in the local online version.

[May 11, 1999] "Euler, Topic Maps, and Revolution." By Steve Pepper. Presented at the XML Europe '99 Conference. "This paper aims to provide a short introduction to the new topic map standard, and to illustrate some potential applications of topic maps, particularly in the area of encyclopaedia publishing. It is based on the author's participation in the development of the topic map standard (representing Norway in SC34, the ISO committee responsible for SGML and related standards), and two years' collaboration with leading reference works publishers in Norway, Denmark, Poland and Germany." For details on the this 'Topic Map' format, see the discussion on the Topic Map Sample.

[May 11, 1999] "Topic Maps at a glance." By Michel Biezunski. Presented at the XML Europe '99 Conference. "Topic Maps are a tool to organize information in a way that is optimized for navigation. It addresses the problem of infoglut that we are facing. Too much information resolves eventually at no information, unless there are ways to filter and to extract efficiently the kind of information which is really needed. This problem has already been solved for printed material. Book indexes basically perform the same function, i.e., allowing readers to go directly to the portion of the document that is relevant to their information need. Topic Maps are the online equivalent of printed indexes, and it happens that they can do more: they are a powerful way to manage link information, such as glossaries, cross-references, thesauri, catalogs, they enable the merging of structured, unstructured information. The fact that topic maps are now becoming an international standard is also an incentive for software vendors, who are now able to propose standardized tools to manage link databases." For details on the this 'Topic Map' format, see the discussion on the Topic Map Sample.

[May 11, 1999] "Trying not to get lost with a topic map." By Rafal Ksiezyk. Presented at the XML Europe '99 Conference. "Topic Navigation Maps, international standard ISO/IEC 13250, offers a promising aids for classifying and navigating large corpora of documents. Generality and complexity of the paradigm may cause problems with right information interchange between data model and editors and end users. Discussion of hierarchical and distributed methods of information modelling lead to definition of canonical view of TNM data and proposal for standard GUI [Graphical User Interface] controls." For details on the this 'Topic Map' format, see the discussion on the Topic Map Sample.

[May 11, 1999] "Groves For Applications." By Graham Moore. Presented at the XML Europe '99 Conference. "This paper considers the existing use of groves and suggests that there is a missing application of this technology. The missing class is concerned with representing applications, programs with functional intent, and the states within applications as grove models. This paper presents the problems and requirements for representing applications as groves and what it means to link to a node in a grove." For more on groves, see "Groves, Grove Plans, and Property Sets in SGML/DSSSL/HyTime." For details on the this 'Topic Map' format, see the discussion on the Topic Map Sample.

[May 11, 1999] "Benchmarking XML Parsers on Solaris." By Steven Marcus. May 10, 1999. "The article [by Clark Cooper] at http://www.xml.com/xml/pub/Benchmark/article.html made me curious as to whether Java on Solaris would fair any better. Solaris is the 'showcase' environment for Java -- and Sun claims to have spent much time and money optimizing Java for its platform. Table 1 summarizes the results: [. . . ] In case you don't want to follow the link: (1) Java is faster than Perl/Python for all test cases, (2) expat still wins (surprise!)."

[May 11, 1999] "XML Adds Context To Enterprise Portal." By Richard Karpinski. In InternetWeek Issue 764 (May 10, 1999), page 15. "Two upstart vendors are poised to deliver innovative technologies for building enterprise portals. These sites, which offer corporatewide views into intranets, extranets and enterprise applications data, are continuing to gain traction. Such portals provide users with ready access to information such as front-office or enterprise resource planning data through a Web browser. But many critics contend the idea is more flash than substance. Verano Corp. and Sequoia Software Corp. hope to change that view. Both vendors are applying Extensible Markup Language (XML) to promote a more sophisticated information infrastructure."

[May 11, 1999] "Tradex Helps Build Trading Hubs." By Richard Karpinski. In InternetWeek Issue 764 (May 10, 1999). "Tradex Technologies Inc. last week unveiled a new version of its commerce platform that offers one of the few out-of-the-box packages for building dynamic trading hubs. Tradex's technology already powers some of the industry's most successful digital marketplaces, including MetalSite, PlasticsNet and a new customer, the HOTS e-commerce site, an Australian food services marketplace. The vendor's Commerce Center 6.0 platform adds improved handling of registration for large marketplaces; contract and pricing management; rules and workflow capabilities; a thin-client, self-service user interface for casual users; and the extension of XML support across the entire application layer, company executives said."

[May 11, 1999] "Standards are Key to Forté Product Enhancements." By Stannie Holt. In InfoWorld (May 10, 1999). "Forté Software has embraced a broader range of standards, especially Java and Extensible Markup Language (XML), in the latest releases of its application development and integration products. . . The company also unveiled Forté Fusion, a suite for enterprise application integration (EAI) that is based on XML for easier data interchange. It bundles existing Forté applications, including Conductor, its business-process automation environment, as well as pre-built adapters for various enterprise suites such as SAP R/3 and Baan, with a new XML-based infrastructure, Butterworth said." See the announcement: "Forté Fusion EAI Product Suite First to Integrate Business Processes, Development for Enterprise Platforms. Process-Driven Architecture Provides Industry's First Native XML-Based Backbone Integrating Business Packages, Legacy Systems and Custom Components."

[May 11, 1999] "Back End To The Web -- Foresite Upgrade Supports XML, Java." By Justin Hibbard. In Information Week Issue 733 (May 10, 1999), page 123. "InfoSpinner Inc. last week released an upgrade to its ForeSite host-to-Web middleware, recasting it as a Web application server. ForeSite 3.0 enhances the product's ability to convert mainframe data to Web pages with support for the Extensible Markup Language, (XML) message-oriented middleware, and Java servlets. Add-on connectors called System Integration Modules link back-end systems to ForeSite, which transforms data into Web pages, XML documents, or Java client apps. ForeSite Message Queue SIM exchanges messages with IBM's MQ Series and CICS middleware. ForeSite Servlet SIM accesses data from Java servlet applications. As in previous versions, ForeSite 3.0 offers SIMs for 3270 and 5250 mainframes, AS/400s, ActiveX controls, Java components, COM objects, and ODBC databases."

[May 11, 1999] "IBM To Go Head-To-Head With Oracle In The Database Ring. To Launch Satellite Edition Later This Year." By Shawn Willett. In Computer Reseller News (May 07, 1999). "IBM is preparing an 8-Mbyte mobile database, dubbed DB2 Satellite Edition which currently is in beta and due out in the second half of this year, said Janet Perna, general manager of the data management group at IBM. As for DB2 itself, Perna said an upcoming release will be able to store XML documents and tags. That means better searching capabilities for Web and E-commerce applications. 'There will be more granularity to the information you can get,' said Perna."

[May 11, 1999] "Microsoft Announces XML Support For Developing Web Applications." By Scott Clark. In InternetNews.com (May 10, 1999). "Microsoft Corp. recently announced the release of the Microsoft XML Parser for incorporation by third-party software developers. The Microsoft XML Parser can be redistributed and is fully compliant with the World Wide Web Consortium's Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 specification. It enables developers to support XML in any or all of the presentation, business logic or storage elements of an application. Some of the leading independent software vendors, such as Allaire Corp., Novell Inc. and Object Design Inc., have announced that they will be using the Microsoft XML Parser for XML support within their upcoming software products. Additionally, Microsoft has been working to integrate the parser directly into all of its own products which are used to build Windows Distributed interNet Applications (Windows DNA)." See the press release: "Microsoft Delivers End-to-End XML Support For Developing Web Applications. Release of Microsoft XML Parser Spans Multi-tier Windows DNA Applications; Major Software Vendors to Ship With Their Applications."

[May 10, 1999] "XML: The Last Silver Bullet . . . It Could Be Just That." By Jack Vaughan. In Application Development Trends (April 1999), pages 24-30. Cover story. With sidebar story by George Lawton, "At XTech '99." "Extensibility is its first name. It may be used in meta data and middleware. XML is a potent standard now being brewed by Web-inventor Tim Berners-Lee and his able colleagues at the W3C. XML's flexibility seems to position it for a very bright and promising future. . . XML is a marriage that meets the needs of both the democratic Web and the not-so-democratic software industry. There is no need to ask if these diverse camps can co-exist. The World Wide Web has already proved that possible. But the folks that brought you the World Wide Web, inventor Tim Berners-Lee, the W3 Consortium and numerous others, are a pragmatic lot that are at work on a set of component and semantical data interchange standards that can be ignored or used. If they are used and accepted, they may create a design and development environment in which data and application definitions will be far more flexible than they are today." [local archive copy]

[May 10, 1999] "XML in Context: W3C." By Dan Connolly (W3C). Presentation slides from the XML Europe '99 Conference, April 1999, Granada, Spain.

[May 10, 1999] "[Deliverables] Expected from the W3C [Working Groups] in 1999." By Tim Bray. Presentation slides from the XML Europe '99 Conference, April 1999, Granada, Spain.

[May 10, 1999] "Internet Learning Ready for Priceless Mark-Up. XML Europe - Its Impact on Education." By Peter Murray-Rust. In The Times Higher Educational Supplement (May 7 1999), page 21. "[Extract:] XML (Extensible Markup Language) is seen as the 'next thing after HTML' and interest in it is growing fast. Last week 1000 of the leaders in this new field met in Granada to discuss this next generation of web-based technology and to show the products which already support it. It will have a major impact on web-centred education, and as one of the few academics in Granada I feel we need to know more about it. Microsoft has included XML capabilities in its new browser, Internet Explorer 5. In a keynote speech Microsoft's Adam Bosworth showed how a custom application can be built to include both traditional 'documents' and structured 'data' in a completely integrated fashion. It is the need to support e-commerce that is driving XML and we will all benefit from the tools being developed. Bosworth showed how XML can be used in a browser environment to support the management of student records. Microsoft is committed to supporting XML in all its new software including Office2000. The good news is that XML is a non-proprietary standard, backed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and all the big players are involved. Thus IBM has an excellent range of freeware (http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com) including nice authoring software (Xeena) and many other useful tools for filtering documents. Creating your resources in XML is a big step towards 'future-proofing' them.

[May 10, 1999] "XFDL: Creating Electronic Commerce Transaction Records Using XML." By Barclay T. Blair and John Boyer. In [UWI.com] XFDL Digest (May 1999). "In the race to transform the World Wide Web from a medium for information presentation to a medium for information exchange, the development of practices for ensuring the security, auditability, and non-repudiation of transactions that are well established in the paper-based world has not kept pace in the digital world. Existing Internet technology provides no easy way to create a valid "digital receipt" that meets the requirements of both complex distributed networks and the business community. In addition, an improved articulation of digital signatures is needed. Extensible Forms Description Language (XFDL), developed by UWI.Com and Tim Bray, is an application of XML that allows organizations to move their paper-based forms systems to the Internet while maintaining the necessary attributes of paper-based transaction records. XFDL was designed for implementation in business-to-business electronic commerce and intra-organizational information transactions."

[May 10, 1999] "First WebDAV Products See the Light of Day." By Jeff Walsh and Bob Trott. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 18 (May 03, 1999), page 8. "Proprietary methods for Web developers to interact with Web servers are becoming unnecessary, because products are now beginning to ship which support the Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) Protocol. WebDAV is a proposed standard of the Internet Engineering Task Force, and provides Web servers with the equivalent of a network file system for exchanging data via HTTP. Glyphica and Microsoft are both delivering WebDAV support in the current beta versions of their server products, and Zope, an open-source Web application development environment, also added WebDAV functionality last week." See "Glyphica Launches New WebDAV Server" and "WEBDAV (Extensions for Distributed Authoring and Versioning on the World Wide Web."

[May 10, 1999] "PeopleSoft eases apps integration." By Stannie Holt. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 18 (May 03, 1999), page 20. PeopleSoft last week announced a Web-based integration framework designed to help its applications connect more easily and cheaply to its own and other enterprise resource planning (ERP) products, as well as to electronic-commerce services. The so-called Open Integration Framework (OIF) program is made up of four generic APIs, plus partnerships with companies that make connectors between disparate applications, notably STC and New Era Of Networks, said Tim Murray, director of the OIF project, in Pleasanton, Calif. The APIs will rely heavily on the Extensible Markup Language, according to Ryan McAfee, director of strategy at PeopleTools Development, in Pleasanton, Calif."

[May 10, 1999] "Products Garner XML Support. Web authoring gains sophistication." By Jeff Walsh. In InfoWorld (April 19, 1999). "The Extensible Markup Language (XML) moved from the realm of vendor hype to shipping products at Spring Internet World in Los Angeles last week, where many Web authoring tools also received a facelift."

[May 07, 1999] "The Role of Architectural Forms in XML/EDI Applications." By Martin Bryan (The SGML Centre). May, 1999. "This paper suggests how some of the Architectural Form Definition Requirements expressed in Annex A: SGML Extended Facilities of ISO/IEC 10744:1997 could be used to simplify the creation and management of XML document type definitions (DTDs) that are designed to be used for business-to-business electronic data interchange (EDI). Background to architectural forms: Architectural forms (AFs) were introduced to SGML in 1997 to allow the development of meta-DTDs that could be used to create classes of elements which could share common processing characteristics. There are four basic types of AFs: (1) Element type architecutural forms, which define a meta-model for a particular class of elements. (2) Attribute type architectural forms, which can be used to assign process control attributes to specific types of elements. (3) Notation type attributes, used to identify notation processors that understand how to handle specific meta-data classes. (4) Data attribute type architectural forms, which can be used to assign processing control attributes to notation processors. . . One of the key advantages of using AFs rather than schemas is that the techniques proposed in this paper can be used by any DTD-aware XML parser, whether or not it is a fully validating parser. For example, the parser used in Internet Explorer 5.0 is DTD-aware, but is not a validating parser. A secondary advantage is that XSLT is based on the data passed to the application by a DTD-aware parser: it currently has no facilities for using information stored in a schema to manage the transformation. The AF approach ensures that the required information is available with the specifications as they stand today, rather than waiting for the next update of the relevant standards, and the harmonization of the many specifications involved, which is likely to take us into the next century." Note: the document contains a section "Relationship between architectural forms and XML schemas." See also: "Architectural Forms and SGML/XML Architectures."

[May 07, 1999] "Adept Editor 8.0/Arbortext. An XML Editing Package Fit For Experts, Novices." By Wayne Bremser. In Internet World (April 26, 1999), page 33. [IW Labs] From Arbortext Inc., "this flexible editor offers many views and points of control -- and it's backed by deep roots in SGML, XML's predecessor. Adept Editor 8.0 is an editing package that has a long history of providing SGML support to large organizations. The product remains a fully featured SGML editor, but this incarnation has native support of XML and is not the first version of the product to support the language. The company has also released a second version of an XML style sheet creation tool (XML Styler 2) and an enterprise infrastructure package with XML publishing and delivery (Epic). Another important part of the Adept family is a DTD creation and editing tool called Document Architect. Sometimes XML content creators and editors also have a hand in DTDs, but at larger organizations control over a DTDs is limited to a few people. This series of products is designed for daily intensive creation and editing of XML and SGML documents, rather than dabbling in XML. Still, new users should have a fairly easy time with this product, and can learn a lot from it about the conventions of SGML and XML. The editing portion of the Adept package offers the straightforward Windows interface of Excel or Word 97, but at the same time gives the experienced user a way to sidestep three rows of icons. Each XML or SGML structured document is displayed in a common two-paned window layout, which includes a document map view in the left pane and a document view in the right pane." [Product rating: 'four stars out of four']

[May 07, 1999] "Formsheets and the XML Forms Language." By Anders Kristensen (Extended Enterprise Laboratory, HP Laboratories Bristol ). In HP Labs Technical Reports (March 05, 1999). HPL-1999-41. 15 pages, with 14 references. "This paper presents XForm - a proposal for a general and powerful mechanism for handling forms in XML. XForm defines form-related constructs independent of any particular XML language and set of form controls. It defines the notion of formsheets as a mechanism for computing form values on the client, form values being arbitrary, typed XML documents. This enables a symmetrical exchange of data between clients and servers which is useful for example for database and workflow applications. Formsheets can be written in a variety of languages - we argue that the document transformation capabilities of XSL stylesheets make them an elegant choice." [local archive copy]

[May 07, 1999] "Template Resolution in XML/HTML." By Anders Kristensen (Extended Enterprise Laboratory, HP Laboratories Bristol ). In HP Labs Technical Reports (March 05, 1999). HPL-1999-42. 17 pages. Appendix A contains the TML DTD. "This paper describes a framework for applying templates to applications and documents on the Web. The primary motivation is the need of Web application developers to separate program logic from presentation logic. A template is a prototypical document or part thereof. It consists of content in the target language, HTML, XML, or plain text, plus markup specifying variable parts of the document. The Template Markup Language (TML) is an application of XML which defines a generic and flexible set of template markup elements. TRiX (Template Resolution in XML/HTML) is a framework for processing TML. It excels in being highly extensible - both in the types of values variables can take, variables being URLs, and in the set of template elements recognized. . . Writing numerous Web applications has shown to us that TRiX does indeed solve the problem of entangled application and presentation logic. TML combined with the notion of variables as URLs provides for a powerful and general language for the construction of documents from templates on-the-fly. We applied it to server-side Web applications but it could equally well be applied on the client-side as an alternative to using scripting languages. The major benefit of the TRiX framework lies in its extensibility, both in the number of var URL subschemes and the set of template elements it knows about, and in the high level of integration that is readily achievable between template elements. Modelling variables as URLs has proven itself very useful." [local archive copy]

[May 07, 1999] "Debugging Stylesheets Using Microsoft IE5 XSL Processing." By G. Ken Holman. From Crane Softwrights Ltd. Resource Library. April 22, 1999. "[Debugging] has turned out to be a frequently asked question on the XSL maillist XSL-List info and archive: (http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list) so now this resource can be refered to as a summary of a methodology to debug stylesheets being developed for the Microsoft IE5 XSL engine. This is useful because the menu function View/Source in IE5 shows the XML source, not the HTML resulting from the transformation described by the XSL stylesheet. The page below is excerpted from XSL training materials that can be obtained through the http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/training/ page. The XSL engine in Internet Explorer 5 can be invoked using a tool from Microsoft named the Windows Scripting Host. The script described below will load an XML document and an XSL stylesheet and emit the results of transforming the XML using the XSL. By directing the emitted results to a file, the behaviour of the XSL engine on a given stylesheet is revealed, thus helping with the debugging of the stylesheet logic."

[May 07, 1999] "25 Top Unsung Heroes On the Net." By [Special Section Staff]. In Inter@ctive Week [Online] Volume 6, Number 16 (April 19, 1999), [page 30, Jon Bosak]. "It doesn't appear (yet) on t-shirts or baseball caps, but there's a formula being tossed up on company whiteboards today that tries to explain this thing called the Internet. It's I=gc3. The coda summarizes the belief that the Net will soon add up to a global marketplace bringing together commerce, content and communications. Inter@ctive Week found 25 visionaries who are creating the I=gc3 transformation. They also had to embody our own three 'Cs': cool, committed, cutting-edge. From the open source pioneers working to convince information technology managers that 'free' doesn't mean flawed, to technologists working on squeezing more performance out of the pipe, to publishers dreaming of new ways to entertain and educate, these visionaries may not be household names. But their work may bring about the day when everything from TVs to toasters to the memo pad in your hand is Internet-enabled, and we are all connected to each other anywhere we go. . . Jon Bosak - Chairman, XML Coordination Group. Bosak is considered by many to be the father of eXtensible Markup Language, a technology now being touted as the key link in helping business-to-business electronic commerce live up to its promise. Far from an overnight success, XML is the result of efforts that began as early as 1990 to create a Standard Generalized Markup Language. Bosak, an online information technology architect at Sun Microsystems, has helped guide the 'Webification of SGML' since 1996, organizing the W3C's XML group and serving as its chair. 'XML seems to have appeared out of nowhere, which isn't what happened at all,' he says. 'The power of XML is a direct reflection of the amount of effort people have put into it'."

[May 07, 1999] "Benchmarking XML Parsers. A performance comparison of six stream-oriented XML parsers" By Clark Cooper. From XML.com (May 05, 1999). "Are all parsers and parser implementations alike? Clark Cooper was wondering how his Perl-based XML parser compared to others and so he tested six parsers to see how they performed on small, medium and large processing jobs. All of these parsers run under Linux, and all are stream-oriented. An application must provide callbacks (or their equivalent) in order to receive information back from the parser. While some of them have a validating mode, all the parsers were run as non-validating parsers. When I say that a single program was implemented six times, I mean that each implementation produces (or should produce) exactly the same output for a given input document. But as long as that constraint was met, I attempted to write each in the most efficient manner for the given language and parser. Are you trying to decide which XML parser to use? Are there any performance tradeoffs in choosing C, Java, Perl or Python implementations for writing XML applications? We compare the performance of these six XML parsers that run on Linux."

[May 07, 1999] "Getting Started with XML Programming, Part II." By Norman Walsh. From XML.com (May 05, 1999). This article examines the question of processing XML documents. It continues where Part I left off. This part discusses the Document Object Model and presents concrete examples in Perl and Java.In this article, we'll continue to refine the simple text processing application described in part I. The task is to process a simple XML document that contains user preferences and other application configuration data. A simple example of this format . . ." See also Part 1, 'Getting Started with XML Programming'.

[May 07, 1999] "The Evolution of a Privacy Standard." By Lisa Rein. From XML.com (May 05, 1999). "The W3C has released the latest draft of a privacy protocol that should let agents work smoothly between browsers and web sites, in accordance with the user's preferences. Also, Microsoft and Trust-E have developed a wizard to help site owners create privacy guidelines."

[May 07, 1999] "XML Part 3: Here Come the Editing Tools." By Elizabeth Powell Crowe. In Computer Currents Magazine (April 27, 1999). "The marketplace is churning out a bevy of authoring tools to make the transition to XML smoother. In this column, I'll look at three programs that represent the range of XML editors on the market, in advancing order of complexity: Micro soft's free XML Notepad, Stilo WebWriter, and Adobe Frame Maker+ SGML." The article includes a section "XML on the Web" contributed by Stephen Lee. See also from Elizabeth Crowe XML Part 1 and XML Part 2.

[May 07, 1999] "Microsoft joins wireless consortium." By Anne Knowles. In PC Week [Online] (May 06, 1999). "Microsoft Corp. announced Thursday it is joining the Wireless Application Protocol Forum. The WAP Forum, founded in 1997 by Ericsson Inc., Motorola Inc., Nokia Corp. and Unwired Planet Inc., has created a specification for wireless devices like smart phones, pagers and personal digital assistants to access information on the Internet. The group now comprises some 90 vendors, including AT&T Wireless Services, Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM and Intel Corp. WAP 1.1 is now in proposal form. It specifies, among other things, WML, or wireless markup language, which the Forum calls an XML application that is fully compliant with XML. The group plans to eventually submit it for standardization and is working with the World Wide Web Consortium, among other standards bodies. . ." See the announcement: "Microsoft Joins WAP Forum. Will Collaborate on Unified XML-Compliant Standard for Wireless Mobile Devices And Services." For more on WAP Wireless Markup Language (WML), see "WAP Wireless Markup Language Specification."

[May 07, 1999] "Forté to tout XML, Java initiatives." By Scot Petersen. In PC Week [Online] (May 06, 1999). "Forté Software Inc. will kick off its fifth annual user conference next week with announcements on ways it will use XML and Java to extend its products further into the enterprise. The Oakland, Calif., vendor will formally unveil its line of EAI (enterprise application integration) products, which include Fusion for EAI and Conductor for business process automation, along with a series of Adapters for connecting to legacy systems such as SAP R/3 and Vantive. Officials say XML has enabled the company to resolve many of the complexities that have made EAI deployments difficult for IT shops."

[May 07, 1999] "Bluestone's XML-ent future." By Robin S. Hohman. In Network World (April 26, 1999), pages 74-75. Bluestone Software sells Web application servers, certainly not the sexiest of Internet technologies but most assuredly where some big money is. Bluestone's XML-Server is unique because it dynamically translates non-XML data into XML. That ability helps make back-end business applications and data available for e-commerce and other Internet applications. The company also has marketing savvy, releasing innovative, affordable tools to broaden XML's appeal, such as Visual XML, a tool kit for building XML applications."

[May 07, 1999] "Consulting Firm Adds XML Application Server to Open Source Movement." By Robin S. Hohman. In Network World (April 19, 1999), page 40. Lutris Technologies, a little-known California consulting firm, hopes to make a name for itself by releasing a Java/ Extensible Markup Language (XML) application server to the open source community. Enhydra is a Java/XML application server and development framework used for building dynamic, multitier Internet applications. It can dynamically process information from multiple sources, including stored XML. This helps it tie together back office and database applications, a function that is essential for posting electronic commerce Web sites. Enhydra also includes an XML compiler, which compiles XML as defined by a particular Document Type Definition and then churns out a set of Java classes." See also "Open-source application server enters the fray" and Lutris Technologies Advances The Open Source Software Revolution. With the Next Wave of Internet Application Servers Enhydra Open Source Java/XML Application Server Builds On Existing Internet Foundation of Linux and Apache."

[May 07, 1999] "XML Poses No Big Threat to EDI -- Yet. Lack of standards worries customers, but fear of obsolescence may trigger." By Carol Sliwa. In Computerworld (April 26, 1999). "Vendors are pushing the Extensible Markup Language (XML) as a more flexible format for exchanging business data among trading partners. But many large user companies aren't ready to scrap their big investments in traditional electronic data interchange (EDI) systems for XML. . . Another barrier is the lack of standard data tags in the new XML format. But attendees packed a conference session to learn more about XML, which some industry observers tout as an eventual replacement for EDI's X12 standard format. Steven Bell, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., predicted that during the next year companies will start using XML to exchange information they can't share using EDI. 'I think X12 will morph into an XML-based standard,' Bell predicted, but he said he doesn't see EDI becoming obsolete any time before 2003."

[May 07, 1999] "Standards group to develop XML schemas." By Paul Festa. In CNET News.com (May 06, 1999). "A major Web standards group has commenced work on a more powerful way of interpreting XML documents. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) today announced two working drafts for Extensible Markup Language (XML) schemas. Schemas are designed to replace document type definitions (DTDs), which currently do the work of telling computers how to interpret various XML vocabularies. 'This is going to be a new medium of exchange on the Web,' said the consortium's XML activity lead, Dan Connolly. 'When you want to document how your system works so the rest of the people in your team can use it, this is the technology you're going to use. For business-to-business communications, and every place people are exchanging documents, you have to describe how they're doing it. This is an important piece of that puzzle'. DTDs have been in use with XML's parent language, Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), since the 1960s, Connolly noted, adding that they are overdue for an update." See the press release "World Wide Web Consortium Releases First Working Drafts of XML Schema Specification. W3C Members Collaborate to Improve and Standardize Needed Technology" and the fuller news entry

[May 07, 1999] "IBM Ups XML Push." By Justin Hibbard. In Information Week Issue 732 (May 03, 1999). "IBM released two Extensible Markup Language tools on its alphaWorks Web site last week and launched a search engine for finding XML resources on the Web. The moves further IBM's support of XML as a standard for exchanging data among Web applications. . ." See details in the IBM announcements: "Discover the improvements to XML technologies" and "XML for C++, XML Security Suite, and XML Viewer are new."

[May 07, 1999] "IBM Announces XML Specific Search Engine." By Scott Clark. In InternetNews.com (April 28, 1999). "IBM this week at the XML '99 Europe show in Granada, Spain, launched xCentral, the Internet's first search engine which exclusively looks for Extensible Markup Language data on the Web. This XML data can include XML documents, document type declarations, style-sheets, press releases, tutorials, Web pages and bulletin board postings. xCentral was primarily designed using Java and utilizes XML metadata for more effective search retrieval and cataloging. xCentral is actually a Web crawler, search engine and database tool which catalogs and stores nearly 100,000 'pieces' of XML data which is organized into the categories most useful for developers." See the announcement: "IBM Launches First XML Search Engine. New technology crawls the Web to deliver useful XML information to developers."

[May 07, 1999] "Bluestone Launches XML Pilot." By Charles Babcock. In Inter@ctive Week [Online] (April 30, 1999). "Looking toward a future when Internet access devices will be more mobile than today's desktops, Bluestone Software will make it possible to transmit an address book to a 3Com PalmPilot with the first eXtensible Markup Language application for the handheld device. The company, which wants to seed the market for XML-displaying devices, will make the application available on its Web site as open source code on April 27. Bluestone plans to follow up with calendar and expense report applications. A discovery services application will let PalmPilot users access company databases, Bluestone Vice President Bob Bickel said."

[May 06, 1999] "A Universal Repository Architecture Using UML and MOF. Spanning Platforms by Addressing Semantic and Object Interoperabilities." By Sridhar Iyengar (Unisys). In Component Strategies (May 1999), pages 38-52 (with 29 references) [Database and Legacy Integration]. "Universal repositories unify three technologies: object modeling, distributed objects, and metadata repositories. Modeling and repository technologies (UML and MOF) address semantic interoperability, while distributed object technologies (COM and CORBA) address object interoperability. This article highlights some of the key trends affecting the complexity of development and runtime environments, and then describes the general need for and use of universal repositories for the integration of tools and applications in a distributed development environment. Also highlighted are the importance of an extensible information model and layered information model architecture, as well as support for multiple language interfaces, and the importance of database, OS, and object middleware technology independence as key aspects of a universal repository. Interoperability and convergence among these diverse eforts is a challenge. While the infrastructure technologies (CORBA and COM) are divergent, consensus on metamodels such as UML, which the industry is supporting unanimously (Microsoft included), is a step in the right direction. The same needs to happen with additional metamodels and business models. The increased use of XML in the industry and the potential of MOF/UML integration are key trends to watch." For more on XMI (MOF), see "XML Metadata Interchange (XMI)."

[May 06, 1999] "XML Processing Paradigms. Three different ways of working with XML." By Lars Marius Garshol (STEP Infotek A/S). Documentation from a full-day tutorial on XML processing, focusing on SAX, the DOM and XSL, delivered at XML Europe '99 in Granada, Spain, April '99. The accompanying demo files are available. Abstract: "This tutorial provides a comprehensive overview of the different techniques for processing XML documents. The tutorial aims to provide a comprehensive overview of server-side XML processing for people who already have basic programming skills. The intention is that people who are comfortable with the terms 'object,' 'class' and 'method' will be able to walk away with an understanding of the different ways of processing XML documents, and the kinds of tasks suited for each. The main focus is on SAX, the DOM and XSL." [local archive copy]

[May 06, 1999] "XML: Smarter data for your applications." By Lars Marius Garshol. A presentation given at the PA JAVA 99 conference in London, April 21, 1999. [PA Java '99. The First International Conference and Exhibition on The Practical Application of Java. Wednesday April 21 - Friday April 23, 1999, London, UK.] "The introduction of the XML standard has set off a new web revolution that promises to change not only the face of the web, but also to spill over into and benefit many other areas of computing. XML is a standard for building data formats, based on a decade of experience with the SGML ISO standard, but simplified and adapted for use on the web. Support for XML is being added to Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape, Oracle, Microsoft Office 2000 and many other products. This tutorial aims to give a quick introduction to the motivation behind the introduction of XML, the technical details of XML and the possible usage areas of XML." [local archive copy]

[May 06, 1999] "An Agenda-based Workflow Management System for a Small Company, Using Java and XML." By Alexander Nakhimovsky (Colgate University, USA) and Tom Myers (MyNa Multimedia, USA). Presented at PA Java '99. The First International Conference and Exhibition on The Practical Application of Java. Wednesday April 21 - Friday April 23, 1999, London, UK. Abstract: "Most workflow systems on the market today are large and expensive. We present a generic design for, and an implementation of, a small and inexpensive intranet-based workflow system. Our implementation deals with document processing but can be easily adapted to other domains. At the heart of the design is an agenda-like data structure that uses meta-tables, XML DTDs, and dynamically customized Java classes. The resulting system is highly flexible, making it suitable for small service companies. The system can easily adjust itself to existing workflows in large corporations that only wish to outsource individual stages of their document processing, such as scanning and indexing. It can also adjust itself to different clients, providing only some parts, or all, of the document-processing workflow. This flexibility is achieved by modular design, generic components written in Java, and standard interfaces written in XML."

[May 06, 1999] "Enterprise Messaging with XML. Integrating applications with object servers." By JP Morgenthal. In Component Strategies Volume 1, Number 11 (May 1999), pages 54-57, 70. "JP Morgenthal's 'Enterprise Messaging with XML' is this month's cover story. This mark-up language, when used with messaging, holds great potential for distributed object computing. XML not only gives content definition; it also helps integrate applications. This article examines the use of XML for asynchronous and synchronous communications. Many software vendors that occupy this space directly or indirectly are already implementing XML support in their products. In the Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) market, which encompasses all types of communications methods, vendors who currently offer XML support or who are working XML into their products include: IBM, Microsoft, TIBCO, TSI Software, Vision Software, Vitria, and webMethods." [local archive copy]

[May 06, 1999] "Models for Enterprise Metadata." By David S. Linthicum. In Component Strategies (May 1999), pages 14-17. [Enterprise Application Integration] With sidebar: 'Will XML Bring Standards to Data Movement Metadata?' "Enterprise metadata models-the heart of the EAI solution- define all the enterprise's data structures and how they interact within the domain of the solution. David Linthicum looks at the logical and physical models, as well as the impact of XML standardization on data movement metadata. . . In my last column, we learned about data-level EAI, and the process of implementing data-level EAI within an enterprise. In this column, let's expand on that process and discuss the creation of an enterprise metadata model, and how to use that model for integration. Once all the information about all the data in the enterprise is contained in the data catalog, it is time to focus on the enterprise metadata model. The difference between the catalog and this model is sometimes subtle. It is best to think of the data catalog as the list of potential solutions to your EAI problem and to think of the metadata model as the data-level EAI solution. The metadata model defines not only all the data structures that exist in the enterprise, but also how those data structures will interact within the domain of the EAI solution. The data catalog defines the parameters of the problem. The enterprise metadata model solves it."

[May 06, 1999] "XML, Integration, and the Smaller Developer." By Simon St.Laurent. April 27, 1999. "XML is an opportunity to remake the software development landscape as well as the world of documents. The ease with which XML-based architectures can be created and rebuilt is an opportunity for smaller developers to take back the integration tasks that had been disappearing into the hands of larger companies. Small developers can now compete on the same playing field as established vendors, using open and easily-mastered XML documents to build their own infrastructure. At the same time, there are some dark clouds hanging over XML. Historical quirks, especially complexity created by its derivation from SGML, make XML seem more difficult than it really is. The ongoing development of XML and related standards at the W3C (a consortium dominated by larger vendors) also threatens to make XML more difficult to process." [Many thanks to Richard Goerwitz, Baden Hughes, Dan Brickley, and Clifford Thompson.]

[May 06, 1999] "Java, XML, and a New World of Open Components." By Simon St.Laurent. April 22, 1999. Presentation slides, New York Object Developers Group [April 19, 1999]. "... looks at a number of key technologies for using XML in object-oriented development."

[May 06, 1999] "DSSSL formatting objects mapping to HTML+CSS. The html output format mode." By Didier PH Martin. March 24, 1999. "DSSSL is the ISO standard language allowing the rendition of SGML or XML documents. The SGML/XML kit adds to current browsers (IE and, in a future release, Mozilla) DSSSL processing for SGML and XML documents. This document describes the SGML/XML kit html rendition format. This rendition format do a translation from DSSSL formatting objects to HTML+CSS. Thus, a subset of DSSSL objects are mapped to HTML+CSS. For instance, a DSSSL paragraph object is mapped to a <DIV><SPAN>...</SPAN></DIV> construct. For Jade veterans, this transformation process is invoked by the -t html command line instruction."

[May 05, 1999] "Lucent, Netscape Launch Wireless Portal." By Michele Masterson. In InternetNews.com (May 05, 1999). "Lucent Technologies Wednesday licensed Custom Netcenter from Netscape Communications as part of its effort to develop of a new custom portal aimed at service providers testing Lucent and third-party wireless applications using wireless phones and hand-held personal digital assistants. The portal, dubbed Zingo, will also incorporate wireless Internet technologies from Spyglass Inc. and Wyrex Communications Inc. of Toronto. and will employ Wireless Applications Protocol (WAP). The Zingo portal will use Spyglass Prism technology to translate HTML content into VXML (Voice eXtensible Markup Language) for Interactive Voice Response (IVR) applications or WML format for WAP-enabled phones. Using Prism, a single version of content published in standard HTML format can automatically be reformatted for almost any device with a built-in browser." See: "WAP Wireless Markup Language [WML] Specification."

[May 05, 1999] "Extra Chunky XML, in Client-Size Servings." By Charlie Heinemann. In extreme xml [Microsoft MSDN Column] (April 19, 1999). 'To serve only the information that the user needs, we must divide the document into chunks.' Way back in December, I let you in on the wonders of ID and IDREF. In the article 'Cross-Reference Your XML Data,' I showed you how to use ID and IDREF declarations within schema to cross-reference your data and quickly search your data for the information you need. This month, I'd like to take this one step further. Using the same data, I'll show you how to utilize ID and IDREFs within XSL to break your data up into more manageable chunks. I'll also show you how to navigate from an XML node to the schema that defines it in order to gather pertinent information about that node."

[May 05, 1999] "Excelon Stores And Delivers XML Data. Object Design's data store provides a single, unified view of application data." By Don Kiely. In Information Week (May 03, 1999), pages 12A-14A. "Object Design's recently released Excelon Extensible Markup Language server is a data store based on the company's successful ObjectStore database. Excelon stores, caches, and delivers XML data across the middle tier of distributed applications, similar to conventional relational databases. As a physical data store, Excelon copies data from any data source, parsing and storing it in an XMLStore as discrete XML elements. As a virtual data store, Excelon acts as an interface between the client application and the data services layer, storing data only as needed within its own store and translating on the fly. The XMLStore is organized as a hierarchy of file types, including XML documents, multimedia and other binary files, Extensible Query Language queries, and Java extensions. The XMLStore is indexed and manipulated using the World Wide Web Consortium's Document Object Model, soon to be a new standard, and queried using XQL, a proposed standard. . . Object Design maintains that XML and object databases were made for each other, breathing new life into an underutilized technology. On the surface, object databases seem well-suited to storing hierarchical data such as XML. Like XML, they inherently support both data and metadata--information about data--in a flexible, hierarchical structure. XML's unlimited, user-defined tags fit better into an object database than the row-and-table metaphor of a relational system."

[May 04, 1999] "An Illustration of the XSL Key Construct [XSL Keys]." By G. Ken Holman. Crane Softwrights Ltd. Resource Library (Module 10: Advanced Patterns and Transformation, Lesson 10-2: Cross Referencing Techniques). "To help better understand a new (since 19990421 draft) feature of XSL, the illustration below attempts to depict the relationships between function arguments and XSL instructions when dealing with keys. The markup shown is based on an example posted by James Clark to the Public XSL Mail List in April 1999. When behavior similar to XML ID/IDREF attribute cross-referencing values is required by either attributes or element content, the stylesheet writer can define and reference key values . . ."

[May 04, 1999] "Schema Fragmentation Takes a Bite Out of XML." By Antone Gonsalves and Lee Pender. In PC Week [Online] (May 3, 1999). "As XML makes inroads among IT users and vendors, there's a growing concern that fragmentation will threaten the language's status as an enterprise data sharing standard. Ongoing Balkanization is not related to the Extensible Markup Language 1.0 specification itself. Instead, it involves incompatibilities among XML schematas, known as DTDs (Document Type Definitions), that vendors and users create to tag an XML document. Platform vendors and users are creating proprietary DTDs for vertical markets, inhibiting XML's application integration and data exchange capabilities. . ."

[May 04, 1999] "What's the Big Deal with XSL?" By G. Ken Holman. From XML.com. April 22, 1999. "Confused about XSL and how it relates to CSS? Ken explains that the relationship between XSL and CSS is a complementary one. He examines two different implementations of XSL and provides the documents and stylesheets for you to compare to each other." Note that Ken Holman offers other online/tutorial materials on XSL; see the Crane Softwrights Ltd. Training Programmes and Training Materials." For related XSL materials, see "Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL)."

[May 04, 1999] "XML News Feed: All You Can Parse. WavePhore Backs XMLNews Initiative. Simplifying a Standard for Newswires." By Mark Walter. From XML.com. April 20, 1999. "Will Web news aggregators set the pace for delivering newswires in XML? A new XML initiative announced last week promises to spread the syndication of news content on the Web. XMLNews, developed by David Megginson, is an XML specification that describes the text and metadata of news content. The specification and related materials have been published at XMLNews.org." See further information in: "XMLNews" and in the April 05, 1999 news entry.

[May 04, 1999] "Getting Started with XML Programming." By Norman Walsh. From XML.com. April 21, 1999. "How is processing an XML document really different than processing a plain old text file? If you're new to programming with XML, you may be wondering how to get started. The benefits of using XML to store structured data may be obvious, but once you've got some data in XML, how do you get it back out? In this article, we'll explore several alternatives and look at some concrete solutions in Perl. (The process and the alternatives are much the same in Python, Java, C++, or your favorite programming language.) We're going to build a simple text processing application that uses XML to store user preferences and other configuration data. It's the sort of thing that's typically been done with plain text files in the past, and it's probably familiar to most readers."

[May 04, 1999] "Puzzlin' Evidence: No Machine Could Translate These New XML Entities." By 'Xavier McLipps'. From XML.com. April 22, 1999. "XML is morphing from a field-of-dreams (well, hey, build it and they did come) to business-as-usual. Fortunately, this still leaves a bit of space for silly, slimy, and sinister behavior. Xavier digs into the M&A activity and tells us what's really behind the big deals."

[May 04, 1999] "How Five Industries Will Benefit From the Grove Paradigm." By Steven R. Newcomb (TechnoTeacher, Inc.). Slides from the presentation at the XML Europe '99 Conference. Delivered in the HyTime Track, XML Europe 1999, Granada, Spain, April 29, 1999. Note that the presentation was 'not the same as the published paper': "(a) The paper in the Proceedings is organized by industries; (b) This talk is organized around the features of the grove paradigm that are useful to those industries; (c) Much has happened since the paper was written. There are more than five industries involved in grove-based projects. . ." Abstract: "Many industries must fully integrate the information represented in heterogeneous resources, and the grove paradigm offers the most comprehensive and least expensive way to achieve such integration. The benefits for the transportation, government systems, healthcare, IETM, and semiconductor industries are discussed in this presentation." See the full paper: "How Five Industries Will Benefit from the Grove Paradigm." For more on groves, see "Groves, Grove Plans, and Property Sets in SGML/DSSSL/HyTime."

[May 04, 1999] "XML: New Way to Do Business." By Mike Ricciuti and Wylie Wong. In [CNET News.com] Enterprise Computing (May 03, 1999). "Extensible Markup Language has quickly gained software makers' nearly universal endorsement as the language of choice for Internet-based data exchange, but the real battle over standardization is still to come."

[May 04, 1999] "XML: An API for Every Web Site." By Brian Walsh. In Network Computing (May 03, 1999). "There is a lot of interest in, and even more confusion over, XML--what it is and how to prepare for it. Is XML a standard? A new way to format Web pages? Yet another language to code? None of the above? The answer to each of these questions is 'sort of.' To boil down the concept to one sentence, XML is like an API for potentially every Web site. . ."

[May 04, 1999] "XML Shows Great Promise For Server Development. Standard provides interchange format for distributed apps." By Don Kiely. In Information Week (May 03, 1999), pages 7A, 10A. "The Internet has forced business developers to change to the way they build applications. Distributed programs are increasingly the norm, cooperatively processing data on Web servers, databases, and legacy systems. A single application can have its component parts running on Windows, Unix, Linux, and OS/390 systems--a nightmare for developers and system administrators. . . XML will come into its own when it becomes a native data storage format and not simply an intermediate format for exchanging data between applications. It's unlikely that any of the major database systems from IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and Sybase will store native XML data any time soon, but any of the new XML data servers can provide an efficient solution for data that must be used throughout an enterprise."

[May 04, 1999] "Bow Street provides integration between directories and XML." By Jeff Walsh. In InfoWorld (May 03, 1999). "Bow Street Software on Monday unveiled a channel management architecture that marries directory services and the Extensible Markup Language (XML) to help move sales and distribution channels to the Web. The Bow Street architecture enables customized channels to be created in real-time through XML components, as opposed to hard-coded Web applications, which are harder to maintain and update. . . Bow Street is working with IBM and Novell to integrate their directory services offerings into the Bow Street Web Services Architecture. Bow Street also announced Monday that it will integrate Microsoft Active Directory's Group Policy features into its architecture." See the announcement: "Bowstreet Breaks eBusiness Bottleneck: Moving Complex Sales & Distribution to The Web. Fortune 500 Customers Rally Around Bowstreet's New Web Services Architecture. IBM and Novell To Partner with Bowstreet to Ensure Leading-Edge Directory and XML Integration." Also: "Novell and Bowstreet Team Up to Leverage Directory Services for Internet Channel Management. Companies Will Work Together to Integrate Novell Directory Services, digitalme and iChain with Bowstreet's Web Services Architecture."

[May 04, 1999] "Startup to simplify Indirect Sales -- Software Allows Fast extranet Creation." By Jeff Sweat. In Information Week Issue 732 (May 03, 1999). "Bow Street Software Inc., the new venture of former Tivoli Systems chief Frank Moss, this week makes its product debut with software to help businesses quickly build and customize extranet applications for sales-channel partners. Because the software is directory based, AIG will be able to make changes to a user or group profile that are automatically reflected on its extranet sites, rather than requiring IT staff to update manually, Fellows says. The software's XML infrastructure will make it simpler to link to partner systems for exchanging information, he adds." See the announcement: "Bowstreet Breaks eBusiness Bottleneck: Moving Complex Sales & Distribution to The Web."

[May 04, 1999] "Single meta data standard goal of OMG, MDC." By Michael Lattig. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 17 (April 26, 1999), page 28. "Two separate standards groups, the Meta Data Coalition (MDC) and the Object Management Group (OMG), have agreed to take on the daunting task of developing a single set of standards for meta data. [David Downing said] it could be Extensible Markup Language (XML), and not a standard developed by the two groups, that ultimately unifies meta data. 'XML is probably going to become the unified standard for specifying and unifying meta data across repositories, solving some of these proprietary battles going on between Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM,' Downing said. 'Ideally, there will be a standard XML specification'." See the press release: "Meta Data Coalition and Object Management Group Form Cooperative Relationship to Build Consensus on Metadata Standards."

[May 04, 1999] "Groups Take on Single Metadata Standard." By Mark Hammond. In PC Week [Online] (May 03, 1999). ". . . two standards bodies are teaming up to develop a single set of standards. In theory, a single set would reduce market confusion and improve efficiency for IT organizations managing metadata from disparate data stores. Currently, the Meta Data Coalition, in Austin, Texas; the Object Management Group, in Framingham, Mass.; and database market leader Oracle Corp. each support their own metadata standards. MDC and OMG said last month they've formed a technical liaison, a significant step toward resolving interface differences. An official at IBM, which has been working with OMG on metadata standards, called the collaboration between the two groups 'awesome'. 'If all of us can cooperate and work toward a standard, customers could build data marts and data warehouses that work together. It's a little rosy-sounding, but that's what we're shooting for' said Jeff Jones, IBM data management program manager, in San Jose, Calif." See the press release: "Meta Data Coalition and Object Management Group Form Cooperative Relationship to Build Consensus on Metadata Standards."

[May 04, 1999] "Now is the time to seek out XML training." By Ross Owens. In InfoWorld (April 26, 1999), page 88. [Enterprise Careers.] "The growing maturity of the Extensible Markup Language (XML), has seen a corresponding surge in the number of people curious to learn as much as they can as soon as they can about this up-and-coming meta language. The fact that many of the proposed standards related to XML are still in a relative state of infancy doesn't have to be an impediment for those who are thinking about XML training. 'Now is definitely the time to get the concepts down,' says Deborah Lapeyre, vice president of Mulberry Technologies, in Rockville, Md., a consultancy that focuses on XML/Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). 'Once the concepts are yours, changes in details will not bother you'."

[May 04, 1999] "Baan Opens New Portal." By Lee Pender. In PC Week [Online] (April 26, 1999). "Baan Co. is getting into the business portal arena with software that integrates non-Baan back-end applications. . . The portal will sit on top of an Extensible Markup Language middleware bus that will send and receive messages between systems. Instead of tying into the ERP system, applications will tie into the message bus."

[May 04, 1999] "Empress Delivers XML Support." By Scott Clark. In InternetNews.com [Intranet News] (April 26, 1999). "Empress Software Inc. this week announced support for XML in its recent release of Empress Hypermedia V8.20, the Internet Applications Development Toolkit. Empress Software hopes to 'power the high degree of data interchange within business applications on the Internet, intranets and extranets'. Empress Hypermedia V8.20 provides full control by defining tags and structural relationships between tags in a Web document. Unique documents can be developed specifically for an application and its embedded data managed by the Empress RDBMS. Developers can define the semantics of an XML document, which allows the creation of application-specific Web documents."

[May 04, 1999] "XML Vendors To Roll Out Extended Offerings." By Justin Hibbard. In CMPNet TechWeb News (April 22, 1999). "DataChannel, maker of XML applications, gained Tuesday a services business by merging with Isogen. The combined companies will offer a range of products and services for deploying XML applications. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The merger will bolster DataChannel's XML Framework, a package of products and services that includes DataChannel's XML applications and systems integrators. Isogen brings experience in designing, integrating, and implementing XML applications for clients such as Chase Manhattan Bank, Lockheed Martin, Lucent, and Nortel Networks. The combined companies will employ about 40 systems integrators." See the announcement: "DataChannel Inc. and ISOGEN International Corp. Merge to Become the Largest XML Enterprise Solutions Provider."

[May 04, 1999] "XML Speeds Ahead." By Sebastian Rupley. In PC Magazine [Online] (May 03, 1999). "After being heavily promoted as a makeover for the Web, XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is starting to live up to the hype. Recently, a slew of announcements from giant backers and the formation of new consortiums have delivered a shot of adrenaline to the promising new standard designed to describe the contents of Web pages. The current standard for producing content on a Web page -- HTML -- doesn't catalog the page's contents for intelligent searching. XML, a subterranean mark-up language for tagging and describing content, is intended to function like an intelligent library card catalog. It should make Web searching more robust and assist with the functions of programs such as intelligent assistants, or bots, which scour the Web for the best prices on products."

[May 02, 1999] "Towards the Semantic Web: Metalog." By Massimo Marchiori and Janne Saarela (The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), MIT, INRIA). "The new W3C standard RDF (Resource Description Framework) describes a metadata infrastructure which can accommodate classification elements from different vocabularies i.e. schemas. The underlying model consists of a labeled directed acyclic graph which can be linearized into eXtensible Markup Language (XML) transfer syntax for interchange between applications.This paper will demonstrate how a new system, Metalog, allows users to write metadata, inference rules and queries in English-like syntax. We will demonstrate how these reasoning rules have equivalent representation both as RDF descriptions and as logic formulae. We will also show how an automated compilation between these translations is possible, showing the effectiveness of the system, which aims to be a first step towards the ambitious project of Tim Berners-Lee's semantic web. RDF provides the basis for structuring the data present in the web in a consistent and accurate way. However, RDF is only the first step towards the construction of what Tim Berners-Lee calls the semantic web, a World Wide Web where data is structured, and users can fully benefit by this structure when accessing information on the web. RDF only provides the 'basic vocabulary' in which data can be expressed and structured. Then, the whole problem of accessing an managing these data structured arises. Metalog provides a 'logical' view of metadata present on the web. The Metalog approach is composed by two major layers. The first layer consists in an enrichment of the RDF model. Metalog provides way to express logical relationships like 'and', 'or' and so on, and to build up complex inference rules that encode logical reasoning. This 'semantic layer' builds on top of RDF using a so-called RDF schema. We call this level of Metalog the Metalog model level. The second layer consists of a 'logical interpretation' of RDF data (optionally enriched with the semantic schema) into logic. This way, the understood semantics of RDF is unwound into its logical components. This means that every reasonment on RDF data can be performed acting upon the corresponding logical view, providing a neat and powerful way to reason about data. We call this level of Metalog the Metalog logic level..."[cache]

[April 20, 1999] "The State of the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative April 1999." By Stuart Weibel (OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc.). In D-Lib Magazine Volume 5 Number 4 (April 1999). "One hundred and one experts in resource description convened in Washington, D.C., November 2 through November 4, 1998, for the sixth Dublin Core Metadata Workshop. The registrants represented 16 countries on 4 continents, and many disciplines. As with previous workshops, many new issues were opened, and vigorous debate was a hallmark of the event. Unlike previous workshops, the focus of DC-6 was not to resolve questions in plenary meetings, but rather to identify unresolved issues and assign them to formal working groups for resolution. The result of this process was an ambitious workplan for 1999. This report summarizes that workplan, highlights the progress that has made been on the workplan, and identifies a few significant projects that exemplify this progress. . . The second proposed change is simply to format the Dublin Core specification according to a standard description template for metadata elements known as ISO 11179. ISO 11179 is an international standard for formally expressing the semantics of data elements in a consistent manner. . . A given set of metadata elements can be registered as an RDF schema on the Web, thereby specifying the semantics and structure of the metadata set. XML provides the encoding syntax, and the XML-namespace facility makes it straightforward to mix element sets in a given metadata description without the danger of element names colliding. That is, an element established as a component of one namespace, such as the Dublin Core, is in no danger of being confused with an element of the same name from another namespace. Element sets are thus modular in the Warwick Framework sense. . . There are currently several means for representing Dublin Core metadata, including embedded HTML, raw XML, and XML-encoded RDF. The current consensus on DC elements can be seen as a semantic view that can be represented in a variety of ways. Those interested in exploring the implications of this are urged to read the DC-Schema Discussion Paper discussing views of Dublin Core and their relationship to an underlying data model (DC-SCHEMA 1999) and to participate in the ongoing discussions on these issues.'

[April 20, 1999] "XML at Your Service." By Mark Merkow. In Webreference (April 15, 1999). "This week at Webreference we serve up a gaggle of XML industry standard DTD initiatives and the new breed of XML-specialization servers. Learn how e-commerce is bringing XML at Your Service."

[April 20, 1999] "Sybase makes e-commerce pitch. Sybase wants its slice of the e-commerce pie." By Wylie Wong. In CNET News (April 19, 19990. "Sybase has begun shipping its updated application server and PowerJ and PowerBuilder development tools, touting them as the software needed to create Web sites for e-commerce, employees within a company, and business partners. The tools are tightly integrated with the application server, allowing developers to seamlessly code and make changes to applications, Sybase executives said. The Enterprise Application Server 3.0 supports XML, Corba, and some level of Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB), said Michael Merritt, Sybase's senior director for the Enterprise Application Server."

[April 20, 1999] "DataChannel, Isogen Merge." By Jeff Walsh. In InfoWorld (April 20, 1999). "DataChannel on Tuesday announced that it has merged with Isogen International to deliver Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based solutions focused on the enterprise. DataChannel will provide the products for the solution, with Isogen working on the systems integration and consulting. DataChannel said Isogen brings a lot of XML knowledge to the table, as it has been working on data-centric solutions in the Standard Generalized Markup Language world since 1994. As part of the merger, Isogen will retain its Dallas location and will be branded as 'A DataChannel Inc. Company.' Each company will continue to play to its separate product and solutions strengths, with Isogen also helping on DataChannel's enterprise portal products." See the announcement: "DataChannel Inc. and ISOGEN International Corp. Merge to Become the Largest XML Enterprise Solutions Provider."

[April 20, 1999] "DataChannel merges with Isogen for XML services." By Lee Pender. In PC Week [Online] (April 20, 1999). "In an effort to bulk up its services component, DataChannel Inc., provider of enterprise portal and eXtensible Markup Language technology, announced today it has merged with XML services provider Isogen International Corp. Isogen, based in Dallas, will become a subsidiary of DataChannel, of Bellevue, Wash. The privately held companies did not release financial terms of the deal, but DataChannel officials said the combined company will continue to hire employees rather than pare jobs.

[April 19, 1999] "XML DTDs for B2B, ASAP." By Eric Binary Anderson. In ent Magazine [Online] Volume 4, Number 7 (April 7, 1999), pages 21, 23. "OAGI's achievement is the first step to a world of connected businesses. For the past decade, the computing world steered toward synchronous distributed protocols such as CORBA and DCOM to link the world. While these technologies will have their place, the future lies with asynchronous messaging, such as MQSeries and MSMQ. The reason for the change is that the Internet raised our definition of a high-volume distributed system from thousands of users to millions of users. Message queuing can provide this super-scalability, which is something that no synchronous solution can do. XML messages, using a public DTD, provide the perfect package to send through the message queue's pipeline. DTDs can improve the business-to-consumer relationship, as well. How many of you enjoy filling out forms? I know I recently decided on a loan broker because she promised to handle all the paperwork for me. I simply can't stand repeating the same task I've done since I opened my first savings account as a tike. Enter DTDs. Once a majority of commercial Web sites agree on a DTD for customer information, you'll be able to fill out an entire loan application -- on any loan site -- with a single cut-and-paste operation. . . We're only seeing the tip of the iceberg. XML DTDs should do for electronic communication what high-level languages did for assembly language programmers: open up whole new worlds."

[April 19, 1999] "The Business Case for XML." By Marty Nemzow. In Web Server Online Magazine (April 1999). "You may have read about XML in other publications, which usually place an emphasis on how to create XML-based Web pages. This column will instead focus on how XML provides a strategic imperative for businesses applying electronic commerce and integrating with back-office operations and/or strategic partners."

[April 19, 1999] "XML Applications Stand Up To EDI." By Ellis Booker. In Information Week (April 16, 1999), page 8. "XML is starting to prove itself as a practical alternative to EDI for e-business trading. E-commerce pioneer Dell this week revealed it will use an application based on XML as the interface between its customers' ERP or procurement systems and its own online order-management systems. Separately this week, RosettaNet, a consortium creating XML-based supply chain processes for the $700 billion IT industry, said it had completed a successful test of its first Partner Interface Process (PIP), an XML derivative that defines various electronic interactions between trading partners. Dell's procurement system, due this summer, will rely heavily on Microsoft products, particularly its XML-based BizTalk schema and server products coming out in the second half of the year. . . Interestingly, Dell is not a member of RosettaNet, which counts American Express, Cisco, CompUSA, Compaq, EDS, Federal Express, Intel, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, and Netscape as members."

[April 19, 1999] "MarketSite.net. The First Open Business-to-Business Trading Web" By [Staff]. Featured company profile and 'Site of the week', from Ontology.org. "CommerceOne launches MarketSite.net based on breakthrough XML technology from Veo Systems, a company they acquired in January." See the MarketSite.net Web site for full details.

[April 19, 1999] "The MetaXSL Engine." By Olivier Brand. From Intraware, Intranet library. [Conclusions:] "With admittedly limited testing, our prototype MetaXSL Engine performs quite well. We tried it with several combinations of XML Parsers and XSL Processors currently available for download and they all worked, although performance varied. These tools are constantly being updated so it is important to build a solution with an open architecture. XML and related technologies and the tools to support them will continue to evolve and mature as all new technologies do. We found that the current state of affairs is suitable to begin prototyping with and we encourage others to begin planning their own prototypes. XML will generate multiple and robust benefits for users and web developers. The smart developers will begin learning how it works now. As for our prototype and goals, we were able to successfully implement a combination of XML/XSL and Java code to achieve our goals. Our prototype has an open architecture, the presentation logic (XSL) is separated from application logic and our performance is better than we expected. In addition we can support localization with a minimum of effort. We also learned a lot about how XML/XSL work and about the current crop of Java tools that support it. It has been time well spent and we plan to continue developing XML ideas in Java. What we've done is just a prototype and none of this has been incorporated into our web site yet, but it provides a solid basis for us to develop upon for eventual production."

[April 19, 1999] "[Component Front] OMG Announces XMI Specification." By John K. Waters. In Component Strategies (April 1999), page 9-10. Brief description of recent announcements from OMG. See also "OMG Members Unite in Support of XMI Technology," page S-8. For details on XMI, see "Object Management Group (OMG) and XML Metadata Interchange Format (XMI)."

[April 19, 1999] "[Component Front] GM Driving XML Into the Mainstream." By John K. Waters. In Component Strategies (April 1999), page 11. Cf. "Putting The Pedal To The XM-etaL." By Mel Duvall. In Inter@ctive Week [Online] (March 29, 1999).

[April 16, 1999] "Whither ICE?" By Bill Trippe. In The Gilbane Report on Open Information & Document Systems Volume 7, Number 2 (February 1999), pages 5-8. In the special issue 'Metadata, ICE & New Horizons'. "The Information and Content Exchange (ICE) protocol was first conceived a year ago, so it's a good time to visit the initiative and see whether it still has the impressive momentum it seemed to develop right from the start. . . Bill Trippe, joins [the Gilbane Report editorial staff] this month with an update on one of the most well known XML metadata applications, ICE (Information & Content Exchange) protocol. This is one of the (many) areas Bill knows a lot about. How important is ICE to you? The answer depends partly on what the final scope of the protocol is, and that is still an open question. In any case, the issues it addresses will be relevant to any web application that involves sharing content with business partners. You should be aware of it." Note: "GCARI is New Host for ICE." By Dianne Kennedy. In XML Files: The XML Magazine Issue 13 (March 31, 1999). "During the recent XTech Conference in San Jose, Graphic Communications Association Research Institute, Inc. (GCARI) and the Information and Content Exchange (ICE) Authoring Group jointly announced a letter of understanding between the two organizations in which GCARI is named as the official Host organization for the ICE Authoring Group. . . " See more on ICE: "Information and Content Exchange (ICE) Protocol."

[April 16, 1999] "XML in IE5: A Semi-Guided Tour." By Craig Cline and Tim Bray. In ZDNet DevHead (April 13, 1999). "Craig Cline and Tim Bray take a look at IE 5.0's XML support. Though the new IE delivers the best native support for XML to date, it's still not ready for prime-time. . . Still, the recent release of Internet Explorer 5 is noteworthy for two reasons. First, IE5 delivers the best native support for XML we've seen to date. And second, that Microsoft has invested some serious work in this area is an indication of just how important the company believes XML to be in its Internet strategy. Indeed, at a recent developer meeting, Adam Bosworth, a very senior Microsoft engineer indeed, said that it is the company's intention to support XML throughout its operating systems, back office product line, and office applications going forward. And the fact that XML is an official W3C standard doesn't hurt either, since it provides Microsoft with the opportunity to display its born again good-net-citizen behavior in supporting and contributing to the development of open standards. Consequently, we thought it would be helpful to take a look at how well IE5 supports XML in its current iteration."

[April 16, 1999] "BlueGill Enhances Internet Billing." By Gregory Dalton. In TechWeb News   (April 14, 1999). BlueGill Technologies refined its technology Monday for companies seeking to present their bills and statements on the Internet. For transferring billing information from legacy systems, BlueGill utilizes XML. . ." See also the press release, "BlueGill Technologies Harnesses XML to Bridge Information Gap and Bolster Customer Relationships. The BlueGill i-Series improves customer loyalty and increases customer retention by transforming legacy data into interactive Web applications."

[April 16, 1999] "XML Marks the Spot. The new Web language is ready to redefine information management." By Jon Udell. In Computerworld (April 12, 1999). "Sun Microsystems' Scott McNealy is right: The network is the computer. The Web has become that computer's operating system. And the lingua franca of that computer will be Extensible Markup Language, better known as XML. It's much more than just a way to present Web pages: In XML, the document becomes the database. . ."

[April 16, 1999] "Perspecta matures its perspective. XML in and out, automated tagging and a canned user interface help build Web-based self-service applications." By Mark Walter. In Seybold Report on Internet Publishing Volume 3, Number 8 (April, 1999), page 36. "[Recently] Perspecta announced the third release of its conceptual navigation system, adding back-end tools that assist in structuring information; a server that builds multiple-perspective indexes; and a software developers' kit for building customized solutions. The net result is a platform for building Web-based self-service applications. The XML import/export promised last year has been completed, with direct support for the Resource Description Format (RDF) recently adopted by the W3C. ODBC support was added to make it easier to tie Perspecta to other databases. . ." ['Structuring System is composed of four principal sub-components: the Concept Database (CDB), Tagging Assistant, Structuring Assistant, and Data Import Platform. . . The XML-compliant Data Import Platform enables users to import information (for instance, additional controlled vocabularies) into the CDB in a manner consistent with the way they work with information throughout the rest of Perspecta 3.0 - namely, in terms of concepts, their attributes, and their semantic relationships. It comprises a data import program, a data conversion language, and a Perspecta-specific data type definition (DTD).']

[April 16, 1999] "Quark's Troika of Web Products." By Mark Walter. In Seybold Report on Internet Publishing Volume 3, Number 8 (April, 1999), pages 8-11. "In a sweeping corporate effort to diversify its product line and branch out into new vertical markets, Quark has embarked on several major development efforts, including one for catalogs, one for packaging and one aimed squarely at Web publishing. In contrast with the others, the Web initiative is general-purpose technology that could be utilized by Quark customers in a variety of markets. Code-named Troika because it has three prongs, the project is expected to result in products next year. In a visit to Quark's headquarters in Denver and follow-up meetings at Seybold Seminars in Boston, Quark shared a glimpse of Troika with us, which we place in the context of competitive offerings already on the market. . . The first tool, and the one that appeared to be farthest along in development, is an XTension (code-named Troika XT) that extracts text from XPress pages and applies XML-tagging. In implementing such a tool, the first step, of course, is to develop a document type definition (DTD) that establishes the tags and their place in the structure of the archtypical document. Quark is not sure yet if some sort of visual DTD design tool will be supplied. Given how few magazine publishers have XML DTDs, we'd like to see Quark take a stab at automatically generating a first cut at the DTD from the style structure already present in the document. An alternative aid, one that would be easier to develop, would be to include sample DTDs with the product, such as the one already developed by the news agencies for newswires."

[April 16, 1999] "Web Publishing Systems." By Victor Votsch and Mark Walter. In Seybold Report on Internet Publishing Volume 3, Number 8 (April, 1999), pages 11-16. "The market for Web publishing systems is growing into a complicated market space, with overlapping products running the gamut from add-ons to authoring tools all the way up to enterprise-level systems. Several leading vendors showed their latest offerings in Boston, and two new PDF-related systems made their debut. . . [GoLive, FutureTense, HexMacDigiDox, Glyphica] Also "'Inso upgrades DynaBase': Inso introduced an upgrade to its Web-publishing system DynaBase that provides a Java client for Mac and Unix users; adds support for multiple repositories; and promises improved performance. Collectively, the changes help DynaBase scale to meet the demands of very large sites. . . Performance improvements seem to be a recurrent theme with InsoAlso added in this release is a unique XML template system, along with sample templates, to make it possible for designers to create dynamic HTML pages without programming."

[April 16, 1999] "Microsoft, Netscape, vendor consortia announce XML e-commerce strategies. Microsoft muscles on to an awfully crowded bandwagon." By Victor Votsch. In Seybold Report on Internet Publishing Volume 3, Number 8 (April, 1999), pages 32-33. "Recent announcements from vendors large and small point to the inevitable rise of XML and industry-specific DTDs as the enabling tools for the next generation of Web automation, from content exchange to e-commerce. But while XML provides the means for setting standards for e-commerce, it's up to the market to decide just what tagset and protocols will be adopted. In contrast with content syndication, where consensus among users and vendors has led to the adoption of the ICE protocol, the larger and more nebulous world of e-commerce remains more like a trip to the bazaar, where a cacophony of vendors vie for your attention. Amidst the din, there were some recent significant developments. . ."

[April 16, 1999] "XTech '99: Mainstream Vendors Join the Rugged Frontier." By Liora Alschuler. In Seybold Report on Internet Publishing Volume 3, Number 8 (April, 1999), page 40. "It would be difficult, nay impossible, to reproduce the exhilaration of XML conferences of days past: there will only be one breakthrough year, there will be only one year when the big computer firm in Redmond endorses XML. In the first year of the activity that started life as 'SGML for the Web,' the question was would we see XML in the browser and when? At this year's XTech forum the week of March 8 in San Jose, with speakers from Netscape and Microsoft vying for the title of most-XML-compliant browser on the planet, it was difficult to work up much dramatic tension over XML in the browser, although substantive implementation issues remain. Instead, XML in the browsers was overshadowed this year by the rise of XML support by other technology vendors. Proclamations of strategic directions and forthcoming products from Sun, IBM, Oracle, Object Design and others ensure that XML will be used not only for Web publishing but also as glue in many facets of our high-tech, information-handling infrastructure."

[April 16, 1999] "Lotus Notes as a Web-Publishing Platform: Will Release 5 Change Things?" By Steve Gillmor. In Seybold Report on Internet Publishing Volume 3, Number 8 (April, 1999), pages 21-27. [Steve Gillmor spent several months working with the beta version of Release 5 and filed this assessment of the new product and its suitability for Web publishing.] "Coming soon: XML support - For XML metadata, the Notes document library application already captures name, category, time stamp, document size and other metadata into fields in the Domino object store. With this sort of metadata, it's trivial for the designer to create custom views, provide enterprise-wide search capabilities, and publish to paper, the Web, and/or handheld devices. XML is already at work unofficially behind the scenes, carrying the View and Outline applet code stream to and from the Domino server over HTTP. In the future, Lotus plans to extend this functionality and to clean up the implementation for public documentation. Lotus understands the utility of separating form from content and sees the value in using XML for interchange. Some sort of XSL-based transformation facility can be expected as an upgrade to Domino in the near future, and, in the meantime, Lotus' parent, IBM, is making available a whole range of Java-based XML and XSL tools that can be called by Domino in Release 5. At this point, the XML support in Notes is not sufficiently mature for us to recommend the product as a platform for building a high-end XML document-management system (instead, stick with Chrystal, Xyvision, et al.), but it could handle many of the XML metadata needs of Web developers and publishers."

[April 16, 1999] "XHTML: The Extensible Hypertext Markup Language." [W3C team] Written by Dave Raggett. In W3C Talks W3LA event in Stockholm, 24th March 1999. 'slide set for XHTML firstpresented at the W3LA event in Stockholm on 24th March 1999. The presentation covers the history of HTML and explains the work underway for the next generation [of HTML].'

[April 16, 1999] "White Space Handling In XML Parsing." Edited by [OpenXML] arkin (arkin@openxml.org). "White space handling is an unresolved issue in the present definition of XML parsers, falling outside the scope of both the DOM specification and the SAX API. This is a recommendation for the behavior of XML parsers in regards to white space appearing in the source document, and what portions are to be delivered to the application. This RFC is published and made available for public review in an open process. We encourage parser developers to take part in formulating the final specification and to abide by it, in an effort to provide a uniform behavioral model that will allow applications and documents to be portable across a variety of parsers." [local archive copy]

[April 16, 1999] "Formatting Objects Considered Harmful." By Håkon Wium Lie (Opera Software, Norway). April 15, 1999. Abstract: "The W3C Working Group on XSL is currently producing two specifications: a transformation language (called 'XTL' in this document) and a set of formatting objects written in XML (called 'XFO' in this document). The idea is for XTL to transform XML data and documents into set of formatting objects which subsequently can be rendered. On the ladder of abstraction from presentation to semantics, XFO is at the level of presentational HTML elements. A Web of XFO documents can be compared to a Web of HTML documents with only FONT and BR tags. Although not intended to be used on the Web, it's unlikely that it can be prevented. XFO is therefore a threat to accessibility, device-independence and the dream of a semantic Web. The note ends with some suggestions on how to solve the problem." [local archive copy] This paper was announced on April 16, 1999, and generated a thread with scores of responses on the XSL Mailing List.

[April 15, 1999] "Open-source Application Server Enters the Fray." By Dana Gardner. In InfoWorld (April 14, 1999). "Lutris Technologies, a consultancy in Santa Cruz, Calif., will announce April 19 that its free, open-source Java/Extensible Markup Language (XML) application server, Enhydra, is gathering momentum both in deployment and via the efforts of developers contributing to its evolution. The privately held company, which oversees Enhydra's development in the open-source milieu, claims Enhydra is the only open-source XML compiler and server available. Available now for free download at www.enhydra.org, Enhydra -- a word that when used with lutris forms the Latin name for surfers' mascot, the California sea otter -- is designed to provide both the server platform and development framework for building dynamic, adaptable multitier Internet applications . . . Furthermore, Enhydra uses XML to simplify the inter-relationship of graphic designers and Java developers during the development of dynamic HTML presentation."

[April 15, 1999] "XML Comes of Age at Internet World." By Jeff Walsh. In InfoWorld (April 14, 1999). "The Extensible Markup Language (XML) found its way into actual products and not just vendor hype here Wednesday at Spring Internet World. Announcements featuring XML came from Interleaf, RightDoc, General Magic, Sqribe Technologies, IPNet Solutions, and Blue World Communications."

[April 15, 1999] "WebCGM: Industrial-Strength Vector Graphics for the Web." By John C. Gebhardt (InterCAP Graphics Systems) and Lofton Henderson (Inso Corporation). An OASIS / CGM Open White Paper. April 1999. "For years, companies, industry groups, and government organizations have used Computer Graphics Metafiles (CGMs) for storing and exchanging 2D graphics. CGM is a format defined by the International standard ISO/IEC 8632:1992 for digitally describing vector, raster, and hybrid (raster and vector) graphic pictures very compactly. It has proven to be a very good format for the technical illustrations in electronic documentation, geophysical data visualization, and other demanding 2-dimensional graphics presentation applications. About the same time the CGM standard matured, the World Wide Web began to explode and graphics began to play an increasingly important role. Until recently, graphics on the Web consisted of raster images - pictures represented as large arrays of colored pixels. The formats typically used to transmit these images are GIF, JPEG, and more recently PNG. However, rather than sending pixel values over the Internet, an alternate approach is to send the instructions for drawing lines, circles, ellipses, curves, and other shapes. The advantages of describing pictures abstractly are manyfold. . . WebCGM is an 'intelligent graphics' profile of the CGM standard, which means that in addition to graphical content based on CGM Versions 1-3, the profile defines the semantics of non-graphical content (metadata) based on CGM Version 4, Application Structures. The non-graphical content allows the definition of hierarchies of application objects, as well as the association of metadata, such as link specifications and layer definitions, with the objects. WebCGM was developed as a joint effort of the CGM Open Consortium, in collaboration the W3C under the W3C-LA project. The W3C has been working on integrating CGM with the Web since 1996. In June of 1997 it identified the need for a profile of CGM for use on the Web. Shortly thereafter, a group of vendors and large users of CGM technology met and agreed to form a consortium. As a result of those early meetings CGM Open was incorporated in May 1998. . . The CGM standard does not define a way to formally express profile and content rules. XML has been chosen as the language for expressing metadata content in WebCGM. XML is not valid content in WebCGM metafile instances. One advantage to the choice of XML as the formal language is that validating parsers are widely available. Even though XML syntax is not valid in WebCGM instances, such tools could be adapted to perform content validation of WebCGM instances. . ." See also "Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM)." [local archive copy]

[April 15, 1999] "GCARI is New Host for ICE." By Dianne Kennedy. In XML Files: The XML Magazine Issue 13 (March 31, 1999). "During the recent XTech Conference in San Jose, Graphic Communications Association Research Institute, Inc. (GCARI) and the Information and Content Exchange (ICE) Authoring Group jointly announced a letter of understanding between the two organizations in which GCARI is named as the official Host organization for the ICE Authoring Group. GCARI has entered into this relationship to fulfill its ongoing mission of promoting standards for use in fields of information technology and publishing. Under this agreement, all members of ICE Authoring Group (ICE AG) and Advisory Council (ICE AC) also shall become Special Membership Group (SMG) members of GCARI. The new Host Organization will host the ICE web site as well as upcoming ICE standards activities. GCARI will also sponsor an ICE Seminar Series to promote understanding and implementation of the fledgling standard. The first ICE seminar will take place on May 17 and 18 in New York City." See further on ICE: "Information and Content Exchange (ICE) Protocol."

[April 15, 1999] "The Emerging eCommerce Wars." By Dianne Kennedy. In XML Files: The XML Magazine Issue 13 (March 31, 1999). "Over the past month we have seen a host of exciting announcements from established market leaders such as Netscape and Microsoft as well as from emerging players. We also see an increasing number of specific vocabularies, or tag sets, designed to facilitate eCommerce in particular industry sectors. And finally we see great claims by organizations that transcend any particular industry specific DTD, claiming to have already achieved interoperable XML-based eCommerce frameworks on their newest technology platforms. What's hot in eCommerce? And what can we count on?"

[April 15, 1999] "Jon Bosak Opens XTech Conference." By Dianne Kennedy. In XML Files: The XML Magazine Issue 13 (March 31, 1999). "Jon Bosak, co-editor of the XML Specification, chair of the XML Coordination Group, and co-chair of GCA's new XTech conference provided this year's opening keynote. After welcoming all to GCA's newest technical conference, Bosak began with a discussion on the XML family of standards. . . [Summary of the five main XML-related W3C Working Groups, liaison groups, and XML Coordination Group.] Bosak concluded his keynote by discussing the importance of XML and documents. Although XML has many other uses on the Web, to Bosak, documents are still a critical focus for XML. To demonstrate the importance of documents to us all, Bosak provided the audience with a historical perspective. . ."

[April 15, 1999] "Cascading Style Sheets: A Primer." Book Review by Dianne Kennedy. In XML Files: The XML Magazine Issue 13 (March 31, 1999). Cascading Style Sheets: A Primer is authored by Joseph R. Jones and Paul Thurrott. [The reviewer says:] "I would highly recommend this text to anyone who wants to move from cluttered HTML tagging for style to clean structure coded HTML with CSS style codes. Not only does this text provide mechanics of CSS, but spends a great deal of time on good Web design."

[April 15, 1999] "Binary To Unveil VelociGen For XML." By Charles Babcock. In Inter@ctive Week [Online] (April 14, 1999). "Binary Evolution, a supplier of Web application tools, today is planning to announce at Internet World in Los Angeles an eXtensible Markup Language development and deployment software package for Web servers. VelociGen for XML is designed to let a developer view the structure of an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) document, then map it to a HyperText Markup Language page, or use the scripting languages Perl and Tcl to create advanced mappings to back-office applications."

[April 15, 1999] "Rockford Plays An EJB-XML Tune." By Ellis Booker. In InternetWeek Issue 760 (April 12, 1999), page 19. [Section: Intranet Applications.] "Car audio maker Rockford Corp. is linking a Java application server with Extensible Markup Language to extend the capabilities of its intranet and link to back-end systems, including EDI. A scalable Web server is especially important to Rockford. The company expects the number of accounts on its extranet site to increase from 268 to more than 2,000 within two months as 1,200 independent dealers are added, as well as users from Rockford's corporate offices in Tempe, Ariz., and manufacturing centers in Grand Rapids, Mich., overseas and Canada. While it swaps application servers, Rockford is moving rapidly on the XML front, applying it to incoming EDI purchase orders from Sterling Commerce Inc.'s private EDI network."

[April 13, 1999] "XML and the Second-Generation Web. The combination of hypertext and a global Internet started a revolution. A new ingredient, XML, is poised to finish the job. [How XML Will Fix the Web: Tags categorizing facts, not formats, speed up transactions.]" By Jon Bosak and Tim Bray. In Scientific American Volume 280, Number 5 (May 1999), pages 89-93. For the week of April 12, 1999. Cover story, feature article. "Extensible Markup Language (XML), a tool for writing World Wide Web pages, promises another on-line revolution. Pages written in XML can deliver needed information more quickly and efficiently than HTML pages can. They can also automatically reformat themselves for convenient access by computer, telephone, handheld organizer or other devices. . . [Conclusion:] Thus, for its users, the XML-powered Web will be faster, friendlier and a better place to do business. Web site designers, on the other hand, will find it more demanding. Battalions of programmers will be needed to exploit new XML languages to their fullest. And although the day of the self-trained Web hacker is not yet over, the species is endangered. Tomorrow's Web designers will need to be versed not just in the production of words and graphics but also in the construction of multilayered, interdependent systems of DTDs, data trees, hyperlink structures, metadata and stylesheets -- a more robust infrastructure for the Web's second generation." For other introductory articles, see "Introducing the Extensible Markup Language (XML)."

[April 13, 1999] "Wireless Palm VII Gains Support. The first wireless version of Palm's Pilot organizer is receiving industry support." By Darren Gladstone. In ZDNN TechNews (April 12, 1999). Wireless Palm VII is "scheduled to ship this summer. . . Bluestone Software Inc., meanwhile, is working on XML (Extensible Marking Language) based client/server software called XML-Contact, according to sources. It will allow users to remotely synchronize data by translating it into XML. The Mount Laurel, N.J., company also has XML-Expense and XML-Calendar versions of the software in development."

[April 13, 1999] "Zveno Swish XML Editor Version 1.0 Beta 1." By [Staff]. In Linux Today (April 3, 1999). Swish is a non-validating XML document editor that allows the user to view and edit a XML document in both a tree-mode and a document-mode simultaneously. Swish reads and saves XML version 1.0 documents and features integrated tree and document views. Plugins make Swish fully extensible and customisable. Third-parties may use Tcl/Tk scripting and DOM version 1.0 to create plugin modules to change or enhance Swish's functionality."

[April 12, 1999] "XML standards are too much of a good thing." By Lauren Gibbons Paul. In PC Week [Online] (April 12, 1999). "The lack of standards for conducting business-to-business transactions over the Web is hindering widespread acceptance of electronic commerce, according to Graham Clarke, director of product industries for Microsoft Corp., in Redmond, Wash. "Extranets don't scale. Every private extranet requires a different set of data," Clarke said. An increasing number of vendors believe that XML (Extensible Markup Language) is the answer. Companies ranging from Microsoft to Ariba Technologies Inc. are proposing standards that would extend the XML flexible Web page design language with a common set of transaction tags. These extensions are needed because XML is only a generic standard for tagging documents. These new standards would define the XML document types so that companies could easily exchange purchase orders, invoices and the like. That's the vision. Unfortunately, the reality is turning out to be more like the Tower of Babel because companies and industry groups have proposed a variety of different XML extensions and protocols. As a result, IT managers planning an XML-based, e-commerce strategy need to proceed with caution, said experts who are tracking the progress of the different XML extensions while pressing vendors to converge their efforts."

[April 12, 1999] "Instant E-Commerce: Realizing Immediate ROI with UWI.Com's High-Value XML Business Objects." By David Manning [CTO, UWI.Com]. April 9, 1999. UWI.Com White Paper. "This document outlines the advantages that UWI.Com's solutions offer to organizations conducting business-to-business e-commerce. By providing a low barrier-to-entry and a realistic migration path that enables the expansion and automation of trading networks, UWI.Com's high-value XML business objects allow trading organizations to realize an immediate return on their e-commerce investments."

[April 09, 1999] "W* Effect Considered Harmful." By Rohit Khare [4K Associates]. In From 4K Associates (April 09, 1999). Abstract: "The Wireless Application Forum has developed an entire stack of network protocols parallel to, and only marginally compatible with, the existing Internet architecture. They are convinced handheld wireless devices are -- and will remain -- four orders of magnitude less powerful than conventional Internet hosts and thus require optimized transport, applications, and content. At each turn, WAP Forum has chosen to reinterpret existing Internet standards -- often incompatibly. The shift from UDP to WDP, TLS to WTLS, HTTP to WTP, HTML to WML, ECMAScript to WMLScript -- termed 'the W* Effect' -- is disingenuous at best, and at worst, locks in early WAP adopters to today's lowest common denominator. This report presents a summary of WAP, its history and key players, a layer-by-layer tour of its standards (and its competitors at each layer), and its market potential for handset providers, network operators, application servers, and content providers. This provides context for understanding the strategic conflict between WAP and a host of other, more established Standards Development Organizations (SDOs)."

[April 09, 1999] "Federated Search of Scientific Literature." By Bruce Schatz, William Mischo, Timothy Cole, Ann Bishop, Susan Harum, Eric Johnson, Laura Neumann, Hsinchun Chen, and Dorbin Ng. [Originally published in] IEEE Computer Magazine Volume 32, Number 2 (February 1999), pages 51-59. ISSN: 0018-9162. "The Illinois Digital Library Project has developed an infrastructure for federated repositories. The deployed testbed indexes articles from many scientific journals and publishers in a production stream that can be searched as though they form a single collection. The Digital Libraries Initiative (DLI) project at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) was one of six sponsored by the NSF, DARPA, and NASA from 1994 through 1998. Our goal was to develop widely usable Web technology to effectively search technical documents on the Internet. We concentrated on building the experimental Illinois DLI Testbed with tens of thousands of full-text journal articles from physics, engineering, and computer science, and on making these articles available over the Internet before they are available in print. The team, based in the Engineering Library at UIUC, had primary goals to [...] construct and test a multi-publisher, full-text Testbed that employs flexible search and rendering capabilities and offers rich links to internal and external resources, with the sources tagged in Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). The Illinois DLI Testbed supports full text in SGML format, associated article metadata, and bit-mapped figure images for scientific journal articles. At present (February 1999), the collection includes 63 journals containing 66,000 articles from 5 engineering professional societies: American Institute of Physics, American Physical Society, American Society of Civil Engineers, Institution of Electrical Engineers, and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society. Our Testbed team developed a Web-based retrieval system, which supports federated search across this collection, called DeLIver (DEsktop LInk to Virtual Engineering Resources). A critical element of the Testbed was the effective use of SGML to reveal document structure and produce associated article-level metadata, which homogenizes heterogeneous SGML and allows short-entry display. We take the SGML directly from the publishers' collections, converting it to a canonical format for federated searching and transforming tags into a standard set. The metadata also contains links to internal and external data, such as other Testbed articles and bibliographic abstract databases. The metadata and index files, which contain pointers to the full-text data, are stored independently and separately from the full-text. With SGML, documents can be treated as objects, allowing viewing, manipulation, and output. For retrieval purposes, SGML's major strength is its ability to reveal a document's component structure. While SGML is becoming ubiquitous in publishing, it is largely generated by publishers as a production by-product. The coming widespread availability of rich markup formats, such as XML (eXtensible Markup Language), a nearly complete instance of SGML, will likely make them the standard for open document systems. Future versions of our Testbed are planning to use XML to represent structure." See the broader scope of heavily-funded DLI research. See also Illinois Digital Library Project and CANIS Laboratory, University of Illinois. The IEEE article is also available in PDF format; local archive copy PDF, and HTML.

[April 09, 1999] "XSL: How Stylish Can You Get?" By Neil Randall. "XML (Extensible Markup Language) is about to get better with the addition of a style mechanism: Extensible Style Language. XSL lets you mark data with author-defined elements that allow more control over data presentation and organization than with HTML alone. HTML has spawned the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) mechanism, while SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language), much earlier, added the Document Style Semantics and Specification Language (DSSSL). . . XML (Extensible Markup Language), the most recent addition to authoring languages for the Web, now has a style mechanism as well. Extensible Style Language, or XSL -- a language for formatting XML documents and, especially, the data in XML documents -- has reached the working-draft stage with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). XSL lets authors format XML elements. It uses the syntax of XML, allowing XML specialists to style their documents and data without necessarily learning either CSS or DSSSL. The most powerful aspect of XSL is its ability to map a single data source onto multiple display targets -- that is, more than one implementation of an XML or HTML document on-screen -- and to style the data in each target. . ."

[April 09, 1999] "Oracle to Detail XML Strategy, Unveil App Servers." By Matthew Nelson. In InfoWorld (April 8, 1999). "Oracle will announce its plans to be the instrument for XML-based Internet commerce, as well as several new application servers, at the Internet World show in Los Angeles next week. Oracle will reveal its framework for storing, publish, routing, and processing XML information with Oracle's Internet Platform, which includes the Oracle 8i database, Oracle Application Server, and a new message broker application code-named Messenger. 'What's happening is that people are rapidly standardizing on XML as a way to publish out of one system and into another,' said Jeremy Burton, vice president of server marketing for Oracle. '[But] when you have millions of XML documents floating around, that tends to get out of control. It's easier to find things in a database than it is to find them in a [Microsoft] Word file,' Burton said. 'Using the database to store XML documents is going to happen more and more over time'."

[April 09, 1999] "Oracle Lifts Lid on XML, App server Plans." By Antone Gonsalves. In PC Week [Online] (April 8, 1999). "Oracle Corp. hopes to advance the use of Extensible Markup Language for moving data through the enterprise with the release by the end of the year of a new message broker that provides the translation and transformation layer for moving XML documents between applications. Oracle plans to update JDeveloper, the company's Java IDE, to build adapters, and leverage its Designer modeling tool to generate metadata that can be stored in the message broker's repository as business rules. The message broker will be responsible for translating and transforming XML documents between applications and routing the data based on the business rules. Oracle Enterprise Manager can be used with the new product to manage and monitor the system. Oracle has given XML adoption a high priority in its overall Internet strategy."

[April 09, 1999] "XML Starts to Live Up to its Hype." By Sebastian Rupley. In ZDNN Tech News (April 7, 1999). "After being hyped heavily as a makeover for the Web, XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is starting to live up to the hype. Recently, a slew of announcements from giant backers and the formation of new consortiums have delivered a shot of adrenaline to the promising new standard designed to describe the contents of Web pages. Those who have been following the XML story know that it has broad implications for intelligent Web searching, but XML is going in some brand new directions too -- such as assisting voice-based information sharing." Similarly: "XML Spreads Out."

[April 08, 1999] "Emilé Makes Mark on XML." By Wendy J. Mattson. In MacWeek (April 7, 1999). Media Design in*Progress this week released Emilé Lite, a free version of a Mac-based Extended Markup Language editor that is also due to ship in a commercial version in the second half of this month. Emilé Lite is a document editor that lets Web authors create XML documents and apply custom tags and mark-up constructs via dialogs. The application combines a clone of the Emacs text editor with a graphical user interface for Mac. Emilé Lite automatically adjusts the user interface to match the current document-type definition and can customize the authoring environment accordingly. Emilé Lite can export an XML document as HTML. Users can also employ the software to create documents for interactive Web sites or create content for the company's XPublish Web site publishing system."

[April 08, 1999] "War of Words Heats Up." By Chris Fournier. In Ottawa Citizen Online (April 7, 1999). "With Corel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. both preparing to launch new office suite software packages, the war of words between developers is heating up. And in this arena, at least, Ottawa's Corel Corp. is not about to back down from the giant from Redmond. Executive vice-president of engineering Derek Burney says Corel's WordPerfect Office 2000 package beats Microsoft Office 2000 on several fronts. A principal difference between the competing packages is how they handle Extensible Markup Language, or XML, a data format for structured document interchange on the Web. Mr. Burney says Microsoft has been making 'loss leader statements' by laying claim to XML innovation in its new office products. In fact, he says, Microsoft's XML functionality is not as useful as Corel's. According to Mr. Burney, the problem is that Microsoft does not publish the Document Type Descriptor (DTD) -- the file that goes hand-in-hand with an XML file and explains its format. 'They're using XML as their native file format,' he says. 'But they're not publishing the DTD, meaning they're the only ones who can make use of that file'."

[April 08, 1999] "The XML Factor." By Gerald Lazar. In Federal Computer Week (April 7, 1999). "A new World Wide Web tool has emerged that promises to revolutionize the way federal agencies do electronic commerce while protecting investments in such technologies as electronic data interchange (EDI). Extensible Markup Language is a way of defining the content of a document, similar to the way Hypertext Markup Language defines a document's appearance on the Web. XML may enable agencies to rescue data trapped in legacy systems, speed application development and actively configure graphics presentations to suit client hardware. 'XML is probably the culmination of 20 to 30 years of computer theory,' said Rita Knox, vice president and research director at Gartner Group. 'Within the next year, XML will be everywhere. It will be stabilized, and everyone will be able to use it.'

[April 08, 1999] "Enhanced EDGAR on the Way. Easter Bunny tries to make finding eggs easier." By Michael Collins. In CBS MarketWatch (April 04, 1999). [Re: 'EDGAR, the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval system that contains the documents that public companies are required to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.'] "On the scene again is Carl Malamud, who with the non-profit Internet Multicasting Service and New York University first put SEC company filings online in 1994 and then turned the basics of the current system over to the SEC. He took away many of the government's arguments against unlimited electronic access to public information by showing it was possible, and relatively inexpensive, to put huge document dumps on the Internet for all to see. Malamud's new project, Active Spaces, is creating a mirror of the SEC EDGAR database that is coded in XML, eXtensible Markup Language. He says that will allow deeper and more complicated searches. 'With XML you can more precisely specify the information you are looking for,' Malamud said. 'You can pull the documents apart, work with graphing data. It gives you more control over the document you're pulling out'. The SEC project is just the first step toward what Malamud hopes will be a whole new way of navigating the Internet." See also: "Death to Sleepy Stock Data." By Leander Kahney. In Wired News (April 01, 1999).

[April 07, 1999] "Electronic Catalog. XML: A New Internet Language." By Shannon Oberndorf. In Catalog Age (April 01, 1999). "Now catalogers can get extremely specific in describing product attributes such as price, color, size, and features. For example, XML will allow catalogers to place a tag code for the cost of an item, a code to specify product colors, and tags to identify certain makes of a product. Using XML-based systems, online customers will be able to quickly search for products based on specific criteria, as well as comparison-shop across multiple catalogs. 'XML allows consumers to compare apples to apples, rather than apples to oranges, by adding context to each item,' says John Rosenfeld, electronic commerce operations manager for Lexmark International, a $2.5 billion Lexington, KY-based home and office products manufacturer/cataloger. Lexmark is working with the U.S. government and Commercenet, a Palo Alto, CA-based nonprofit consortium focused on Internet-based electronic commerce solutions, on the XML-based Catalog Interoperability Pilot program. The program allows 35 buyers from 11 government agencies, such as the General Services Administration (GSA), the Department of Defense (DOD), and Social Security, to compare and buy products across several electronic catalog databases from one Website."

[April 06, 1999] "XML in an Instant: A Non-Geeky Introduction." By Charles F. Goldfarb. April, 1999. OASIS Paper. "By now, everyone familiar with the World Wide Web knows that it is undergoing a radical change that is introducing wonderful services for users and amazing new opportunities for Web site developers and businesses. HTML -- the HyperText Markup Language -- made the Web the world's library. Now its sibling, XML -- the Extensible Markup Language -- is making the Web the world's commercial and financial hub. Dynamic information [from databases, used to generate Web pages] needn't be served up raw. It can be analyzed, extracted, sorted, styled, and customized to create a personalized Web experience for the end-user. For this kind of power and flexibility, XML is the markup language of choice. You can see why by comparing XML and HTML. Both are based on SGML -- the International Standard for structured information. . ." [local archive copy]

[April 06, 1999] "Microsoft's XML is More Than Just Standards." By David Strom. In Web Review (April 02, 1999) "With all due respect to Tim Bray's recent analysis of Internet Explorer 5.0's use of XML, I think he is missing the point. Microsoft's entry into the XML universe will do lot more harm than good initially for the XML standards effort, and has the ultimate intention of replacing the way most of us create and exchange documents. The real news is how MS-XML is designed from the start to be the common file interchange format for all Microsoft Office 2000 applications. In doing this, Microsoft has taken to extreme its time-honored practice of embracing and extending an ongoing standards effort. This time, MS-XML has something other than XML in mind. Microsoft is trying to move people away from ordinary HTML 3.0 documents and make Office 2000 the standard tool for Web authoring. And while earlier efforts, FrontPage most memorable, haven't really caught on, I think this time Office 2000 has a solid chance. . ."

[April 06, 1999] "Knowledge Management: Get Smart. More Companies Are Learning How To Leverage Their Knowledge Assets, Starting With The Basics." By Beth Davis and Brian Riggs. In Information Week Issue 728 (April 05, 1999). "Using groupware, databases, and other software tools, a growing number of businesses are trying to combine organizational data with the tacit information in employees' heads to create an enterprise repository of intellectual capital. It's an ambitious undertaking, and one that few companies have mastered. . . Defining objects that tag or identify information about data-a twist on the metadata concept-is becoming increasingly popular in companies trying to leverage both the structured data in relational databases and unstructured data found on the Internet and in other sources. And it's where the up-and-coming Extensible Markup Language fits into the knowledge-management discussion. XML is a set of rules for defining data structures. To date, nearly every software vendor has pledged support for XML, and a growing number of IT shops are using it to integrate disparate sources. Platinum Technologies is using XML to build an index for a knowledge-management repository that holds documents on all the software vendor's products. Each piece of content gets an XML tag that identifies the source of the content. Other bits of information in the tag can identify who the product is sold to, which business unit within Platinum is responsible for the product, and which operating systems the product runs on. The first system to come out of the project was Jaguar, a Web knowledge portal for sales and marketing that includes the XML-based index. Platinum has since built six portals around knowledge communities, or groups of individuals with common interests such as product development, sales and marketing, and business development."

[April 06, 1999] "The End Of The Web As We Know It." By Sean Gallagher. In Information Week Issue 728 (April 05, 1999). "While application servers successfully push corporate applications out into the brave new world of the Internet, they're fundamentally just a reconstruction of the terminal-based application model with a client-server model on the back end. They just aggregate the database connections and push display data over the wire, for the most part. That may be enough for the lowest common denominator of applications, but in the long term, it's a model that doesn't have a lot of life left in it. There are two technologies that will lead to the death of the browser application. The first is the spawn of HTML-the Extensible Markup Language (XML). The second is directory services. XML is more than just an extension of HTML. It essentially provides a way to embed applications into the data they run on. XML can be used to build a data object that knows not just how to display itself, but what the relationships within it mean-data and business logic fused into a single, self-aware form. How that information gets delivered-by E-mail, HTTP, or carrier pigeon-is no longer important; it's how it gets parsed that matters. The browser doesn't just display XML data; it becomes a run-time environment for the application built into it. While XML becomes the application, the directory will become the delivery vehicle for that application. As Novell, Microsoft, and others extend the scalability and functionality of directories, those directories will become the glue that binds together a new class of enterprise and Internet applications. . ."

[April 06, 1999] "The Essence and Quintessence of XML. Retrospects and Prospects." By Robin Cover. December 31, 1998. Report written for Sun Microsystems and OASIS. "The annals of descriptive markup may record 1998 C.E. as the year when the XML scene became noticeably chaotic, while the prospects for its widespread adoption grew increasingly hopeful. . . we witnessed a perceptible and sometimes disconcerting loss of consensus as to what XML actually is. . ."

[April 06, 1999] "Enterprise Java 2 On Tap From Sun." By Amber Howle. In Computer Reseller News Issue 836 (April 05, 1999). "While Sun Microsystems Inc. plans to unveil an enterprise version of Java 2 in June, a JavaServer Pages update is expected to be ready for review this week, the company said. The Enterprise Edition runs on top of Java 2 Standard Edition and is based on Enterprise JavaBeans, a component platform allowing developers to write, deploy and manage business applications. Sun is bundling several products together in the Enterprise Edition, including an XML extension the company recently began developing, Roth said. The XML standard extension will be an industry-developed API for developers needing XML language integration with the Java platform."

[April 06, 1999] "XML Processing Description Language (XPDL)." By Simon St.Laurent. April 04, 1999. Technical paper from a collection of articles. Originally announced on XML-DEV 19990-4-4. "After two years spent explaining to a wide variety of folks how and why the XML Document Type Definition mechanisms work (and don't work), and why XML documents seem to be accumulating more and more references to external resources (notably style sheets), I've decided that it might be worthwhile to take a different approach that XML's current 'document controls its own destiny'. I'd like this to be as open a process as possible, including discussion on xml-dev, the primary XML development mailing list. All comments, suggestions, and contributions are welcome and will be credited. These documents have no official standing with any standards body or process. . . XML Processing Description Language (XPDL) seeks to provide a means of describing document classes which will simplify the management of document classes and make processing more reliable. By creating descriptions for classes of documents, rather than relying on documents to link to sets of resources themselves, XPDL makes it possible both to move beyond the monolithic model presented by DTDs today and to add new resources, like schemas, style sheets, and processing information to the concept of a document class." [local archive copy, 1999-04-05]

[April 06, 1999] "XML, Integration, and the Smaller Developer." By Simon St.Laurent. April 01, 1999. Technical paper from a collection of articles. ". . . a tool has arrived that promises to free data and documents from the tar of proprietary formats and incompatible features. The freedom that Extensible Markup Language (XML) gives data has business implications well outside the world of document and data interchange. Developers now have an opportunity to integrate components on their own terms, mixing and matching software as seems appropriate to them rather than having to rely on schemes created by large vendors to lock developers in to the vendors' own vision of computing."

[April 06, 1999] "What's happening to workflow? Web-based workflow gets down to business." By Lynda Radosevich. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 14 (April 05, 1999). "Integration with Web technologies and better ties to back-end enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications are quickly pulling workflow into the mainstream. Rather than constructing stand-alone systems, users can now tap into embedded workflow technology in packaged applications to automate business processes. . . Whether the workflow engine comes with an ERP system or on its own, XML support is next on the horizon. XML is the syntax that will allow diverse workflow applications to exchange information. For instance, an online store could use XML tags and workflow triggers to take a customer's order, notify suppliers of the order, and use the shippers' tracking system to follow progress of the delivery. 'We see XML as a common language that will allow our applications to interact with themselves or with external applications. It can be an Internet replacement for EDI [electronic data interchange], enable interaction with desktop systems like Office, or display information in a browser,' said PeopleSoft's Bergquist."

[April 05, 1999] "XML Takes on E-commerce. Originally conceived as a more powerful Web publishing tool, XML is now a driving force behind e-commerce." By ames E. Gaskin. In InternetWeek Issue 759 (April 05, 1999), pages 42-43. "'XML makes quick and dirty implementations compared to EDI,' says Benoit Lheureux, research director for Gartner Group's application integration and middleware strategies division. EDI is the e-commerce standard used by some large companies and their trading partners, but is considered too complex and overkill for medium and small companies. Unlike XML, EDI is not text-based and is hard for people to read. 'XML makes it easy for vendors to agree on [formats] for purchase orders and the like,' Lheureux says. Developers and tools vendors are quickly exploring XML, and products using XML are readily available for Web publishing applications. Many data integration and exchange products powered by XML have been announced, but most won't ship until this summer."

[April 05, 1999] "Tap XML's Potential Now." By [Staff]. In InternetWeek Issue 759 (April 05, 1999), page 34. ". . . If XML isn't on your company's agenda, here's a call to action: Laggards will be left in the e-commerce dust. For the uninitiated, the HTML follow-on was originally conceived as a sophisticated way to publish Web pages. But XML has since taken on a life of its own, largely because of the real-world problems it can solve. XML represents one of the most promising technologies for helping companies realize the Web's full potential: bridging differences in computing platforms and data formats to make the exchange of information, as well as transactions, pervasive."

[April 05, 1999] "NatSemi Site Lets Customers Choose." By David Joachim. In InternetWeek Issue 757 (March 22, 1999), page 17. "National Semiconductor earlier this month launched an e-commerce site that lets customers track live inventory data and order online. National gives customers the option to order directly from the manufacturer or from one of six distribution partners. At the heart of the site (buy.national.com) is the Information and Content Exchange (ICE) protocol, which lets the company publish catalog updates to distributors in real time." See "Information and Content Exchange (ICE) Protocol."

[April 05, 1999] "XML Tools to Relieve Web Pains." By Jeff Walsh. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 14 (April 05, 1999). "IBM and WavePhore are pushing the Extensible Markup Language (XML) further down the path from innovation to implementation. IBM recently posted the XML Enabler on its alphaWorks site. XML Enabler is a servlet that converts XML data to HTML by using the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL). This would allow sites to store a single XML version of each document, with the XML Enabler generating client-specific versions on the fly. WavePhore, at Internet World next week, will release the beta version of WavePhore NewsPak, which uses XML as a data format to deliver news feeds to Web sites. This should make it easier for companies to integrate relevant news content into their public sites and intranets."

[April 02, 1999] "Death to Sleepy Stock Data." By Leander Kahney. In Wired News (April 01, 1999). "Say you're looking for new investments and you want to know all the publicly traded Internet companies with annual sales of less than US$20 million. Come May, investors may be able to query a souped-up version of the [SEC] database that will return results in the form of a spreadsheet, or an elegant graphic. In the example above, a user wouldn't actually search the original SEC database. Rather, she would dig through the new mirror of the database, coded in eXtensible Markup Language, or XML. 'The challenge is to visualize the Internet,' Malamud said. 'Our plans are much more grandiose than just visualizing a federal government database.' But the EDGAR mirror is a good step toward taking the power of XML out of the realm of the abstract and arcane, where it currently resides, and placing it in the hands of actual end users. . . The EDGAR database is a good test of the team's XML prowess. It consists of about one million documents occupying 40 GB of data. The SEC adds about 30 MB of new documents a day. Malamud said Invisible Worlds, the pair's company in Redwood City, California, will mark up the documents with XML and post them on its mirrored site. When the site goes live, it will be accessible through Invisible Worlds' Web site." See also

[April 02, 1999] Microsoft Database to Support XML." By Wylie Wong and Mike Ricciuti. In CNET News.com (March 31, 1999). "The next version of Microsoft's database software will support XML, an emerging Web standard, according to company executives. Four months after releasing SQL Server 7.0, Microsoft is designing its next-generation database, code-named Shiloh, with several new features including XML, a standard that simplifies the exchange of data over the Web and corporate networks, said Dave Wascha, Microsoft's XML product manager. Wascha said Microsoft has even transferred Adam Bosworth, the company's chief XML expert, into the SQL Server group. But Wascha would not confirm whether Bosworth would be working on XML support for SQL Server, or some other technological area of the database."

[April 02, 1999] "If You Meet a Data Bigot on the Road, Kill Him." By Lou Rosenfeld. In WebReview.com (April 02, 1999). [Web Architect] ". . . Data is highly structured; documents are semi-structured, and there is a lot of variation and ambiguity in how you might structure documents. That's why, for example, a legal transcript is structured differently than a newspaper article. And why there are so many DTDs (Document Type Definitions) in the XML world. Why should you care about the differences between data and documents? Two words: snake oil. Motivated by commercial gain or just plain ignorance, a few bad eggs in the data community will try to tell you that data and documents are essentially the same, and should be modeled and retrieved in the same way. . . "Dave Blair's 13 Reasons Why Data and Document Retrieval are not The Same. . ."

[April 01, 1999] "Automatically Constructing the Intersection/Union/Difference of Schemata." By MURATA Makoto (Fuji Xerox Information Systems). Presentation slides from the paper delivered at the XTech '99 Conference, San Jose, March 7 - 11, 1999. The paper abstract: "This talk demonstrates a new technology for automatically constructing the intersection/union/difference of two schemata. The hedge automaton theory provides the foundation of this technology. First, input schemata (written in XSchema) are converted to hedge automata (formerly called forest automata). Second, by applying boolean operations to these hedge automata, an output hedge automaton is constructed. Last, the constructed automaton is converted to a schema (again, written in XSchema). The internal representation and boolean operations of hedge automata are built on top of the "Grail" automaton construction toolkit." See also in this connection "Regularity and Locality of String Languages and Tree Languages" (also by Makoto), and "SGML/XML and Forest/Hedge Automata Theory."

[April 01, 1999] "Active TEX and the DOT Input Syntax." By Jonathan Fine. To be presented at TUG '99, on Wednesday, August 18, 1999 in the session 'TeX in Publishing'. "The usual category codes give TEX its familiar backslash and braces input syntax. With Active TEX, all characters are active. This gives the macro programmer complete freedom in defining the input syntax. It also provides a powerful programming environment. The dot input syntax, like TROFF, uses a period at the start of the line as an escape character. However, its underlying element, attribute and content structure is based on SGML. It is both easy to use and easy to program for. Conversion to other formats, such as SGML, HTML and XML, or to proprietary formats such as Word and RTF, will be straightforward. This is because the DOT syntax is rigorous. This new syntax will be described and demonstrated. All manner of problems connected with TEX disappear when Active TEX packages are used. For example, all input errors can be detected and corrected before they cause a TEX error message. This will make TEX accessible to many more users." Note: This document [also in HTML] is a preliminary version of a paper to be presented to the 20th Annual Meeting of the TEX Users Group (Vancouver, Canada, 15-19 August 1999). Jonathan Fine wrote similarly on CTX (1999-04-01): "Active TeX. I've written a TeX macro package that makes all characters active. With Active TeX, every character is a macro! Believe it or not, many problems with TeX can as a result be solved. For more information visit http://www.active-tex.demon.co.uk/."

[April 01, 1999] "BUS: An Effective Indexing and Retrieval Scheme in Structured Documents." By Dongwook Shin, Hyuncheol Jang, and Honglan Jin [Department of Computer Science, Chungnam National University, Taejon, South Korea]. Pages 235-243 (with 16 references) in Digital Libraries '98. Proceedings of the Third ACM Conference on Digital Libraries (Held June 23-26, 1998). New York, N.Y.: Association for Computing Machinery, 1998. Abstract: "In recent digital library systems or the World Wide Web environment, many documents are beginning to be provided in the structured format, tagged in mark up languages like SGML or XML. Hence, indexing and query evaluation of structured documents have been drawing attention since they enable to access and retrieve a certain part of documents easily. However, conventional information retrieval techniques do not scale up well in structured documents. This paper suggests an efficient indexing and query evaluation scheme for structured documents (named BUS) that minimizes the indexing overhead and guarantees fast query processing at any level in the document structure. The basic idea is that indexing is performed at the lowest level of the given structure and query evaluation computes the similarity at a higher level by accumulating the term frequencies at the lowest level in the bottom up way. The accumulators summing up the similarity play the role of accumulating all the term frequencies of the related part at a certain level. This paper also addresses the implementation of BUS and proves that BUS works correctly. In addition, along with several experiments, it shows that BUS facilitates efficient indexing in terms of space and time and guarantees the reasonable retrieval time in response to user queries. . . The basic idea is that indexing is performed at the leaf elements of the given structure and query evaluation computes the similarity at higher level by accumulating the weights at the lowest level in the bottom up way. It underlies the result of R. Wilkinson that 'the retrieval of whole documents can he carried out effectively using just their parts' in part and the idea of UID (Unique element IDentifier) that enables to compute ancestor element of a given element fast." See the bibliographic entry for references.

[March 31, 1999] "An Investigation of XML with Emphasis on Extensible Linking Language (XLL)." By Justin Ludwig. March 23, 1999. An Independent Study Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the College of Wooster and the Program in Computer Science. Advisor: Dale Brown. Abstract: "This paper describes Extensible Markup Language (XML) documents. It explains how to construct XML documents with Document Type Descriptions (DTDs), XML Namespaces, Extensible Linking Language (XLL), Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL), and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Level 1. Each chapter includes a real-world case study of XML usage related to the chapter. This paper also describes an XML browser that can process and display XLL hyperlinks. It includes a full implementation in Java, using the Document Object Model (DOM) Core Level 1." See the fuller description of Link in the 'XML Linking Software' section. [local archive copy]

[March 30, 1999] "Procurement-software vendors look to the sell side." By Tim Clark. In CNET News.com (March 29, 1999) [E-Commerce]. "Commerce One and Ariba Technologies are waging a pitched battle in the market for systems that automate billions of dollars of routine purchases for corporate America. This fight goes beyond selling paper clips and airline tickets. It's part of a larger effort by many vendors seeking to help companies put catalogs, purchase orders, and approvals online. The goal: save time and money. Vendors estimate companies spend between $40 to $100 per purchase order, which usually goes toward processing paperwork. Today, Commerce One responded [to Ariba] by launching MarketSite.net [supported by XML technology], which requires only a Web browser, not Commerce One's software, to make purchases. Commerce One will run the U.S. purchasing site, hosted by MCI WorldCom, but it announced partnerships with British Telecom for Europe and NTT for Japan to run similar marketplaces there. Commerce One also is opening up MarketSite.net to allow rival makers of procurement software to tie into the Commerce One site. The first to announce that its customers can use MarketSite.net is Right Works. Users of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software from giant SAP, an investor in Commerce One, also can purchase from Commerce One's site."

[March 30, 1999] "Putting E-Commerce Into Words. Global Group Using New Technical Language to Bridge Gap on Net." By P.J. Huffstutter. In LA Times (March 29, 1999). "Business-to-business electronic commerce is blocked by a war of words. Companies doing business on the Internet keep returning to the same point: Buyers and sellers aren't speaking the same digital language. RosettaNet, a high-tech global business consortium, hopes to change all that. The Santa Ana-based organization is using a new technical language on the World Wide Web as the base for building a lingua franca for the electronic marketplace. This digital pidgin aims to close the gap between the Internet's promise of an open electronic marketplace and today's reality of incompatible, proprietary systems." See also "RosettaNet."

[March 30, 1999] "GroupWise goes to pieces. New framework to leverage XML. " By Paul Krill and Emily Fitzloff. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 13 (March 29, 1999), page 14. "Novell in 2000 plans to mold its GroupWise messaging system into a component-based platform, anchored by a back-end server and Web-based clients in a framework based on Extensible Markup Language (XML). The latest incarnation of GroupWise will include an application framework, in which all data is exposed via XML. XML is becoming critical to Novell's plans, said a Novell executive hinting at a broad-based XML strategy for the company."

[March 30, 1999] "Web Trading Hub Moves a Step Closer to Reality." By Jim Kerstetter. In PC Week [Online] (March 29, 1999). "Commerce One Inc. has laid the foundation for a major business-to-business Web trading hub, long the Holy Grail of online commerce. The Walnut Creek, Calif., developer this week will unveil MarketSite 3.0, procurement software designed to facilitate a variety of relationships and transactions for companies doing business on the Web. The new iteration of MarketSite removes much of that complexity. Using a free Extensible Markup Language tool called the XML Commerce Connector, all companies -- not just those that are using Commerce One software -- will be able to tie their buying applications into the MarketSite portal." See the Commerce One press release of March 29, 1999.

[March 30, 1999] "XML - Noun or Adjective?" By Brian Travis [Managing Editor]. In <TAG> Volume 13, Number 3 (March 1999), pages 1, 4-5. "Everyone is beside themselves this month concerning trademarks. Most XML people don't know that 'XML' is a trademark of MIT and the W3C. Our editor has been through this before, and is getting a headache thinking about the ramifications. . . Travis says: 'My suggestion is that the W3C should just put "XML" in the public domain, and not worry about how it is used. They might have done that, already, by not going after anyone for using the mark without permission. Just remove the trademark and let us get on with the work that "XML technology" can achieve. It is enough to give a guy an Excedrin headache'."

[March 30, 1999] "If Not DTDs, Then What?" By Bob DuCharme. In <TAG> Volume 13, Number 3 (March 1999), pages 1-3. "On an XML discussion mailing list, someone once claimed that no one would use DTDs if they were optional. Why bother, he asked, with something that just restricts your freedom when creating documents? XML Specification coeditor Tim Bray replied that the opposite effect had happened: people complained that DTDs did not allow enough restrictions. This article corrects most peoples' misconceptions that the current work on schemas in the W3C don't constitute alternatives to the DTD, but different ways of representing the DTD. [. . .] None of the four [current schema] proposals will ever 'win' as the accepted alternative to traditional DTD syntax. Instead, the W3C has assembled an XML Schema Working Group to evaluate the proposals and then construct a new proposal combining their best features, and probably adding some new ones as well. The Working Group's membership includes at least two authors, editors, or contributors involved in the creation of each of the original four proposals."

[March 30, 1999] "XML Parsing, SAX, and the DOM." By Neill A. Kipp. In <TAG> Volume 13, Number 3 (March 1999), pages 5-8. "Every XML document has a textual representation that is strictly defined by the W3CXML Recommendation (http://www.w3.org/XML/). But for an XML document to be 'understood' by a computer, it must be 'parsed.' The result of the parse is a 'parse tree.' While parse trees come in many forms, the purpose is plain. If the parse tree of a document uses the XML grammar exactly, then the document is an XML document. XML is useful for structuring information and SAX is useful for reporting the key features of those structures to applications. Meanwhile DOM is a way that applications can maintain XML-oriented structured information in memory or in databases. Is the DOM really necessary? Or will XML and SAX suffice? [...] XML is superb: it is critical for smart information management and canonical document interchange. SAX is good: XML applications can use SAX as a standard interface to XML parsers. But while DOM is a useful way to think of 'database' XML, dynamic- DOM confuses the boundaries between data, presentation, and programming. Therefore I will continue to write XML."

[March 29, 1999] "Putting The Pedal To The XM-etaL." By Mel Duvall. In Inter@ctive Week [Online] (March 29, 1999). "General Motors is launching a significant effort to gain access to a sea of information in its legacy systems - by deploying Internet technologies based on eXtensible Markup Language. The giant automaker earlier this month announced plans to build an application architecture framework that will allow it to roll out Web-based applications for internal and external use. Software built on eXtensible Markup Language (XML) will be a key component of the new architecture, allowing applications to reach into, and share information from, previously incompatible sources. Over the years, GM has accumulated some 8,500 legacy systems to run its operations, most of which are mainframe applications. They access 110 terabytes of data, stored in processing centers around the globe. A large percentage of those applications cannot share or exchange data, requiring specialized knowledge to get at the underlying information. . . DataChannel is one of the early vendors working with GM on the automaker's initiative. It has developed a portfolio of software, training, design and integration services built around deploying XML-based systems in the enterprise."

[March 29, 1999] "Enterprise Information Portals and XML." Keynote presentation by Norbert H. Mikula. Presented Tuesday, March 16, 1999, 5:30 p.m, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Sponsored by the SGML Forum of New York. "Information is one of the most important assets -- if not the most important one -- of a modern-day company and XML is likely to become the general standard for the markup of information in web-based applications. Enterprise Information Portals (EIP) enable workers at all levels of an organization to get access to information on a personalized level. XML is a natural fit for EIPs as it provides an abstraction layer for all kinds of legacy data - on the level of metadata as well as actual data. The presentation will discuss the problems of information distribution/contribution, approaches to this problem and what role XML does/will play." See the announcement from Chet Ensign for other background. Note: [as of March 29, 1999] the presentation is available in Streaming Media format. The SGML Forum of New York "is a nonprofit corporation which promotes the effective use of SGML and related technologies (e.g., XML, HTML, composition, databases, etc.) through education, the free exchange of information, and by contributing to the further development and expansion of the Standard. [It] sponsors quarterly events consisting of a specific topic with a keynote speaker or a case study and a vendor presentation, providing our members with an opportunity to network with SGML/XML professionals who are involved in SGML/XML related projects.

[March 29, 1999] "XML Buoys Databases for Corporate Markets. Web and XML Keep Object-Oriented Databases Afloat in a World Gone Relational." By Brett Mendel. In InfoWorld (March 29, 1999). "For some time, the object-oriented database market has languished in a sea of arcane development requirements. But thanks to the emerging Web document standard designed to continue where HTML leaves off -- Extensible Markup Language (XML) -- proponents of object-oriented DBMSes (ODBMSes) are now thinking that their ship has come in. . . Until now, ODBMSes have been largely confined to highly technical niche markets and corporate settings with the resources to assemble sophisticated object-oriented systems. However, XML with its use of tags to describe data types, could be seen as the perfect match for similarly enabled ODBMSes. [this has tended to leave object databases out in the cold, but] Beckoning them inside is XML. ODBMSes' capability to accommodate unique data in the hierarchical, object-oriented nature of XML-defined meta data, or intelligence about the kind of data residing therein, should help make ODBMSes a major tool for taming complex Web sites and moving important corporate data to the Web, experts said. And this time, it may be relational DBMSes (RDBMSes) feeling the chill. Although object-oriented approaches are viewed as ideally suited to XML -- with its unlimited, developer-defined tags -- the tables, rows, and columns of traditional RDBMSes are ill-fitting."

[March 29, 1999] "Web Architectures Rule Future Development." By Michael Vizard. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 12 (March 22, 1999), page 5. "As the application development paradigm shifts from client/server to Web-based architectures, there are a handful of technologies that will be critical in any IT organization's future. Within the context of client/server, the dominant technologies were Windows, Visual Basic, C++, and the relational database. In a Web-based architecture, the dominant technologies are the browser, Java, Extensible Markup Language (XML), application servers, object-enabled databases, and asynchronous message queues. Although this may seem more complex than client/server, these technologies combine to have two desirable effects. On the front end, it makes it possible for the scores of people who have acquired application development skills using HTML to build more complex programs, such as an XML-based application that is linked to a transaction engine. What makes that possible is a new wave of application servers that will make it easier to leverage transaction processing monitors from companies such as IBM and BEA."

[March 29, 1999] "Procurement Shifts To Portals." By Richard Karpinski. In CMPNet TechWeb News (March 26, 1999). "Commerce One will move beyond electronic procurement next week and lay out broad plans to enable the building of open-trading marketplaces worldwide. Commerce One will introduce MarketSite3.0, the latest version of its software platform to build and link online trading communities via a flexible XML-based architecture. . . It also will unveil new deals with international carriers BT and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, which will join MCI WorldCom in the United States in hosting large MarketSite trading communities. With MarketSite 3.0, those three umbrella-trading hubs can be linked via XML, as well as to any future communities built with the platform."

[March 29, 1999] "XML: Revenge of the Nerds." By Brian Walsh. In Network Computing (April 05, 1999). "The future of e-commerce will depend upon protocols such as IOTP (Internet Open Trading Protocol). Let's step back for a second and examine the foundation on which IOTP is based--XML (Extensible Markup Language)--and what it means to you. . . XML is no longer a bleeding-edge technology. The browser you are using today supports it. Vendors from Allaire to webMethods support it. Major database companies, including Oracle, Sybase and Informix are now aware that XML is more than a blip on the radar screen. Expect products from them to publish the results of queries as XML and import XML into their tables."

[March 29, 1999] "XML Aims To Cut Costs." By Vicki August and Justin Hibbard. In CMPNet TechWeb News (March 24, 1999). "Everybody likes a standard, especially if it promises to simplify information exchange between businesses. XML looks set to do just that. What started as a better way to build a Web page is now being heralded as the definitive method to integrate data sources by technology giants Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, and Netscape. . . nvestment banker Merrill Lynch also said XML offers huge cost savings. In many cases, XML can save between 30 percent and 60 percent of the cost of distributing data, said Ben Meiry, director of collaboration. 'There's no question that XML is a standard for common data exchange,' he said. Later this year, Merrill Lynch will use XML to distribute news and financial data to desktop systems. Merrill Lynch is also experimenting with using XML to distribute data to handheld devices such as PalmPilots." On Merrill Lynch and XML, see also "XML Gains Ground -- Vendors Pledge Support As XML Stands Poised To Become A Universal Format For Data Exchange. [Top Story]" By Justin Hibbard, Gregory Dalton, and Jeff Sweat. In Information Week Issue 725 (March 15, 1999).

[March 29, 1999] "Sun extends Java to support XML." By James Niccolai. In CNN News [Tech] (March 26, 1999). "Sun Microsystems has announced it is creating an extension for the Java platform to provide support for the Extensible Markup Language (XML). The company said this move will make it easier for developers to build applications that integrate the two technologies. The extension will take the form of a standard API that will be developed using the Java Community Process, which takes input from multiple vendors to define Java standards. . ."

[March 29, 1999] "Sun gives a hill of JavaBeans for e-commerce." By Wylie Wong. In CNET News.com [Enterprise Computing] (March 25, 1999). "Sun Microsystems is designing a blueprint for software developers who want to use Enterprise JavaBeans to build applications for e-commerce, enterprise resource planning, and other needs. The core product in the Enterprise Edition is EJBs. [Sun's Bill] Roth said it will likely include a new version of EJBs--version 1.1 -- that will offer XML support and possibly other new features. Sun is working with other Java vendors, including IBM, on the specification."

[March 29, 1999] "Will Sun's Java2 Pack In Too Much?" By Charles Babcock. In Inter@ctive Week [Online] (March 24, 1999). "Sun will spell out how it plans to implement Java2 Enterprise Edition (EE) in mid-June, when the annual JavaOne conference convenes in San Francisco. However, some developers say Sun Microsystems is trying to include too much in the package and that its size may weigh it down. . . 'It's getting oversized. It's too complex,' says Bob Bickel, chief technology officer at Bluestone Software. Java2 EE will enjoy only limited success as "XML [eXtensible Markup Language] overtakes EJB as the thing that developers build to," he says. Bluestone produces an XML server as well as Sapphire/Web, a Java application server.

[March 26, 1999] "Beyond SGML." By Roger Price. Pages 172-181 (with 23 references) in Digital Libraries '98. Proceedings of the Third ACM Conference on Digital Libraries Pittsburgh, PA. June 23-26, 1998. "The International Standard for the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) published in 1986 is now seen as a mature language for expressing document structure and is accepted as the basis for major projects such as the Text Encoding Initiative and important hypertext languages such as HTML and the XML. The historical origin of SGML as a technique for adding marks to texts has left a legacy of complexities and difficulties which hinder its wide acceptance. A key difficulty is the dual role that SGML documents currently play: they are both a representation for interchange and a human readable presentation. We examine possible document markup techniques in a post-SGML 86 world with emphasis on the framework architecture and the inclusion of richer agent behaviour. The novel ideas include the generalized recursion of elements and attributes, and the generalization of the notion of a 'character' to much broader token which is strongly typed." See particularly the document sections "Relation between grammar and document" and "The recursion of elements and attributes" ['SGML 86 allows mutual recursion of elements, but not recursions between elements and attributes. The overall design may be simplified by removing this restriction; at the same time allowing more general structures to be created in the ASN.l style. SGML 86 also distinguishes between the content of the those elements which have content, and the other properties represented by attributes. This also seems to be an artificial complexity which we shall remove.'] - NB. This article may be of interest to researchers working on XML schemas; the main bibliography entry provides a fuller summary, and link to the online version.

[March 26, 1999] "An XML Framework for Agent-Based E-Commerce. Emerging standards for commercial document exchange promise open business-to-business e-commerce." By Robert J. Glushko, Jay M. Tenenbaum, and Bart Meltzer. In Communications of the ACM (CACM) Volume 42, Number 3 (March 1999), pages 106-114. [Department Theme: Agents in E-Commerce] "Today's Web gives people unprecedented access to online information and services. But its information is delivered in format-oriented, handcrafted hypertext markup language (HTML), making it understandable only through human eyes. Software agents and search engines have difficulty using the information because it is not semantically encoded. Clever programmers work around some of HTML's inherent limitations by using proprietary tags or software that 'scrapes' Web pages to extract content. Unfortunately, such ad hoc approaches do not scale. Proprietary tags require browser plug-ins, and scraping approaches require a customized script for each Web site. These approaches balkanize the Web, making it inaccessible to agents. Tomorrow's Web will use the extensible markup language (XML) to encode information and services with meaningful structure and semantics that computers can readily understand. In Internet commerce, companies will use XML documents for publishing everything from product catalogs and airline schedules to stock reports and bank statements. They will also use XML forms to place orders, make reservations, and schedule shipments. Any agent with the proper authorization will be able to obtain computer-interpretable data sheets, price lists, and inventory reports through the Web or email, then request quotes, place orders, and track shipments. By making the Web accessible to agents and other automated processes, XML will fundamentally transform the nature of e-commerce."

[March 26, 1999] "Share the Ontology in XML-Based Trading Architectures. First Bring Semantic Order to the World of XML." By Howard Smith and Kevin Poulter [Ontology.Org]. In Communications of the ACM (CACM) Volume 42, Number 3 (March 1999), pages 110-111. [Department Theme: Agents in E-Commerce] "Recent e-commerce application activity involving the extensible markup language (XML) has led to a proliferation of XML-based standards and markup language proposals. Among them are several designed to support site-to-site Web automation that lean naturally toward the agent paradigm of distributed computation. Although XML represents a major step forward in e-commerce technology, business-to-business trading partners should also recognize XML's limitations. . . How should foundation ontologies (from which higher-level content is composed) be defined? How can the numerous heterogeneous e-commerce frameworks (such as ICE, OBI, OTP, and XML/EDI) be unified to enable the expected low-friction market of the future? And will the future electronic marketplace be dominated by a series of commerce islands with trading groups isolated by the proprietary protocols and domain models with which their commerce agents interact? [. . .] Consistent schema semantics will certainly enable efficient e-commerce using predefined DTDs between fixed networks of trading partners. But to enable the full benefits of agent-based e-commerce -- where agents act in an autonomous or semiautonomous way, comparing and contrasting products or suppliers and negotiating with other agents -- participating agents have to communicate in terms of a detailed ontology of the business domain. The challenge for technology vendors, e-commerce participants, and standards bodies is to capitalize on the experience available in the knowledge representation and distributed agent communities." A related version of the document is available as a white paper from Ontology.Org: "The Role of Shared Ontology in XML-Based Trading Architectures." - 'Ontology.Org is contributing to the development of XML-based Web-agent architectures by developing foundation ontologies and associated XML schemas.'

[March 26, 1999] "W3C's Berners-Lee urges agent-readable Web sites." By Jeff Partyka. In InfoWorld (March 25, 1999). "Internet-commerce Web site developers need to make the data on their pages more easily identifiable by search engines and agents, according to World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Director Tim Berners-Lee. 'Your data needs to be understood not by people, but by machines,' Berners-Lee said during his Internet Commerce Expo (ICE) keynote address here Thursday. Berners-Lee strongly urged I-commerce developers to start migrating toward the Resource Description Framework (RDF), which, according to the W3C's Web site, 'integrates a variety of Web-based meta-data activities including site maps, content ratings, stream channel definitions, search engine data collection (Web crawling), digital library collections, and distributed authoring, using XML [Extensible Markup Language] as an interchange syntax.' Berners-Lee said widespread RDF adoption will vastly improve Web searching."

[March 25, 1999] "Novell Exec Plays up Forthcoming Role of XML." By Emily Fitzloff. In InfoWorld (March 24, 1999). "In his annual 'Future Technologies' keynote speech this Friday -- the closing day of Novell's Brainshare '99 -- Novell Chief Technology Officer Glenn Ricart plans to discuss the possible implications of supporting the Extensible Markup Language (XML) in Novell's products. 'XML is an interesting standard for representing structured data, and it could be very valuable in sharing directory information and even sharing digitalme information,' Ricart said in an interview earlier this week. Digitalme is the digital identity technology that Novell announced earlier this week for creating more secure, personal Internet services. According to Ricart, the contents of Novell Directory Services and of NetWare would potentially be more valuable to developers if the data could be represented in XML. 'XML is ideal for the interchange of data,' Ricart said. 'For example, objects recognizable within the directory might be represented in XML and likewise, objects recognized by the directory might be represented in XML'."

[March 25, 1999] "The KDE Office Suite. A Glimpse Into the Future." By Reginald Stadlbauer. Translated from German ['Officepaket für KDE. Ein Blick in die Zukunft'] by Uwe Thiem and Andreas Pour. Originally published in the German Linux Magazine (March 1999). "File Formats: In general, all KOffice applications save their data as XML. There already are Document Type Definitions (DTDs) for most of the KOffice parts, though they are not yet completely implemented. With the decision to use XML as the native file format, KOffice certainly is embracing the future. . . a filter manager that simplifies the development of filters for various data formats already exists. While currently few file filters are supported, the principal obstacle has been that many data formats are inadequately documented and often contain binary data, making filter writing non-trivial. But several format filters have already been started. In the future KOffice will support the most popular file formats, such as WinWord, Excel, PowerPoint, RTF and MIF." See also from the KOffice FAQs document [Jost Schenck]: "All KOffice applications store their document data as XML code (eXtensible Markup Language). So KOffice files are stored in a more or less human readable form with 'tags' similar to the ones you know from HTML. Like with HTML, this also garantees compatibility when the file format is going to be extended in the future: like an HTML browser, KOffice applications skip the tags that are unknown to them, so you're going to be able to read files created with a newer version of KWord with an older version (of course without the information provided by the new tags). XML is stored in simple text files and can easily be parsed - so it's possible to write filters e.g., in Perl."

[March 24, 1999] "Current Events On The 'XML For E-commerce' Front." By Mark Merkow. In Internet.com Web Reference (March 18, 1999). [Updated news on industry efforts to extend XML to E-commerce. Learn what Ariba Technologies and Microsoft are up to. . .] "In early March 1999, the Ariba.com Network was launched, establishing the largest worldwide business-to-business commerce network using the Internet. Ariba.com connect buyers and suppliers with services that offer content and catalog management, order transaction routing, and multiprotocol support for sharing content and transaction information.Ariba's approach to content management employs indexing techniques rather than content aggregation. Through their Operating Resource Management System (ORMS), standardized access and control of supplier catalog data provides comprehensive and robust searching capabilities for interested buyers. Multiprotocol support eases the routing and translation of transaction data across a number of industry standards, including cXML, Internet EDI, Value-Added Network (VAN) based EDI, OBI, secure HTTP, e-mail, auto-FAX, and Catalog Interchange Format (CIF)."

[March 24, 1999] "XML for the Absolute Beginner. A Guided Tour from HTML to Processing XML with Java." By Mark Johnson. In JavaWorld (April 1999). "This article will present the history of markup languages and how XML came to be. We'll look at sample data in HTML and move gradually into XML, demonstrating why it provides a superior way to represent data. We'll explore the reasons you might need to invent a custom markup language, and I'll teach you how to do it. We'll cover the basics of XML notation, and how to display XML with two different sorts of style languages. Then, we'll dive into the Document Object Model, a powerful tool for manipulating documents as objects (or manipulating object structures as documents, depending upon how you look at it). We'll go over how to write Java programs that extract information from XML documents, with a pointer to a free program useful for experimenting with these new concepts. Finally, we'll take a look at an Internet company that's basing its core technology strategy on XML and Java. . . [Conclusion:] Using XML with XSL or CSS, you can manage your Web site's content and style, and change style in one place (the style sheet) instead of editing piles of HTML files or, worse, editing the scripts that produce HTML dynamically. Using SAX or DOM, you can treat Web documents as object structures and process them in a general and clean way. Or, you can leave browsers behind entirely and write pure-Java clients and servers that talk to each other -- and other systems -- in XML, the new lingua franca of the Internet. Sun Microsystems, the creator of Java, has perhaps best described the power of XML and Java together in its slogan: Portable Code -- Portable Data. Start experimenting with XML in Java, and you'll soon wonder how you ever lived without it."

[March 24, 1999] "XML-Anwendung - Verknüpfung von Webdaten mit XML." By Ingo Macherius, Peter Fankhauser, and Gerald Huck. In iX - Magazin für professionelle Informationstechnik (April 1999), pages 90-112.

[March 24, 1999] "Was bringt XML? iX zeigt XML auf der CeBIT 1999 - XML-Demo in XML und HTML." By [iX, Henning Behme]. CeBIT 1999 Presentation, 23 slides in HTML. Text in German.

[March 24, 1999] "Novell Lays out Plans to Reinvent GroupWise." By Paul Krill. In InfoWorld (March 23, 1999). Novell in 2000 plans to mold its GroupWise messaging system into a component-based platform, anchored by a back-end server and Web-based clients in a framework based on Extensible Markup Language (XML), Novell officials said here at BrainShare '99 Monday. Instead of deploying large, monolithic messaging applications, users will be able to assemble the pieces they want, such as workflow and document management, said Novell's John N. Gailey, director of directory-enabled applications, based in Orem, Utah. The new iteration of GroupWise will include an application framework, in which all data is exposed via XML. Users will be able to customize the platform with such utilities as a homemade rules processor, Gailey said. Novell Directory Services (NDS) will be used for setting access privileges."

[March 24, 1999] "Whisper 1.0 - a new opensource Mac/Win32 C++ app framework." By Jesse Jones. In MacTech (March 18, 1999). "Whisper is a free general purpose Mac/Win32 C++ application framework. It's the successor to the Mac framework Raven. Like Raven Whisper is a modern framework that takes advantage of templates, multiple inheritance, STL, and exceptions. It's also designed around the notion of Design by Contract and includes numerous debugging tools. The Esoterica [layer] includes automata classes, a regular expression class, a compression class (based on zlib), a simple text parser, a more complex parser (it builds parse trees), and a validating XML parser."

[March 23, 1999] "E-commerce too expensive? Take a look at XML." By Maurice Martin. In Washington Business Journal (March 22, 1999). "Everyone is looking to the future of e-commerce, and some see it in a new technology called the extensible markup language (XML). But to understand what XML is, you first have to understand what it's not. . . 'XML will make e-commerce faster and cheaper for everyone,' said Charles Goldfarb, an expert in computer markup languages. How can XML do this? Well, think of the Euro, the new currency introduced by the European Union this year. The idea is that if people don't have to spend time and effort converting their money from one currency to another when they move between countries, everything will move faster and easier. The economy will heat up, and everything will become cheaper. And, already, a number of Washington-area companies have enough faith in XML to incorporate it into their products. Although it's still too early to measure the full economic impact of XML -- version 1.0 was released only as a 'recommendation' last year -- these companies are gambling it will live up to its promise."

[March 23, 1999] "Wireless link ramped for 'always on' Internet." By Ann R. Thryft. In EE Times Issue 1053 (March 22, 1999). "The problem in wireless Internet access is marrying the network's IP-based packet-data technologies with the connectivity, wider bandwidth and real-time, multitasking demands of wireless communication. In addition, the added power and footprint demands of mobile-wireless client devices must be included in the equation. Essentially, the goal of 'always-on,' mobile, wireless Internet access is generating different visions of how to achieve it. . . Introduced in December, Palm Computing Inc.'s Palm VII model for wireless Internet access parallels WAP's. Both use servers to convert data and protocols into a form that is friendlier to mobile wireless terminals. However, the big differences are in WAP's XML markup language vs. Palm's use of HTML, and in Palm Computing's rejection of the browsing model as overkill for handheld devices with small screens and low bandwidth. Instead of a microbrowser, the Palm VII will use 'Web clipping' to strip off graphics and other extraneous content from a Web site, sending only relevant text portions as requested by the user. A typical Web clipping comprises less than 500 bytes of compressed data." For more on WAP Wireless Markup Language, see "WAP Wireless Markup Language Specification."

[March 23, 1999] "Users Criticize IE 5, Test Win 2000 Beta 3." By Ellis Booker and Jeffrey Schwartz. In InternetWeek Issue 757 (March 22, 1999). "Microsoft last week released Internet Explorer 5.0 and promised an updated version of Windows 98 by the fall. Meanwhile, an earlier version of the third beta release of Microsoft's Windows 2000 operating system got mixed reviews from users in Microsoft's Early Adopter Program. Microsoft claims that IE 5.0 offers faster rendering to speed Web surfing and enhancements that make the browser easier to use. But the Web Standards Project (WSP), a consortium of developers, said that IE 5.0 falls short in supporting key Internet standards. When browser makers do not fully implement standards, "it adds 25 percent in time and cost for testing," said WSP group project leader George Olsen. Specifically, WSP faults IE 5.0 for giving preference to the Extensible Stylesheet Language-which is under development-rather than the standard Cascading Style Sheets; "spotty at best" support for Document Object Model 1.0; bugs in the Extensible Markup Language parser; and an incomplete implementation of HTML 4.0. But a Microsoft official defended the company's record on implementing standards. "I'd defy them to show a more standards-compliant browser," said Mike Nichols, product manager in the Windows Desktop Group."

[March 23, 1999] "Seeking the Common Ground in E-Commerce -- Microsoft to Offer BizTalk Products in a Bid to Standardize Communication." By Aaron Ricadela and Kristen Kenedy. In Computer Retail Week (March 22, 1999). "Microsoft this month introduced a host of strategies designed to standardize communication between electronic retailers and suppliers, thereby doing away with proprietary systems that are seen as slowing the growth of e-commerce. Microsoft's plans revolve around three new products expected to be available in beta form this summer: Microsoft Small Business Commerce Services, a commerce package for small companies; Microsoft Commerce Server 3.0; and Microsoft BizTalk Server, a package that lets companies exchange disparate data and applications. BizTalk Server is built on Microsoft's new BizTalk framework for e-commerce transactions. BizTalk is based on Extensible Markup Language (XML), a widely accepted architecture. According to Fadi Chedade, chief executive officer of the industry standards body RosettaNet, XML allows common descriptions of electronic files such as product catalogs, purchase orders and return authorizations. Microsoft is already working with Dell, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble and others to describe common business practices within the BizTalk framework." See also "RosettaNet."

[March 23, 1999] "Netscape counts on layout engine to propel Navigator 5.0." By Wendy J. Mattson. In PC Week [Online] (March 15, 1999). "Netscape Communications Corp.'s lead engineer says the company is working on a fast new layout and rendering engine that will keep the next version of its Web browser 'ahead of the game.' The layout engine, named Gecko, is at the core of Navigator 5.0, and Netscape Director of Engineering Rick Gessner said it will be the fastest, smallest and most standards-compliant layout engine available -- features that Netscape hopes will help it win its bloody browser war with rival Microsoft Corp. . He said Gecko will make Navigator 5.0 more flexible in its handling of Web data while maintaining a 'tiny footprint.' With Gecko, 'we are way ahead of the game with CSS,' or Cascading Style Sheets, Gessner said. 'We have a great CSS1, a great XML story and soon a great CSS2 story.' Other features in the layout engine include support for Document Object Model, a mechanism for manipulating documents via C++ or JavaScript; a high-speed compositing and rendering engine; and support for XUL, a user-interface language. Netscape said Navigator 5.0 is scheduled for beta release by July, with commercial Mac and Windows versions due by year-end."

[March 23, 1999] "XML and related standards in Gecko. [NGLayout and XML.]" By Vidur Apparao. Expanded abstract and sample code materals from a presentation given at the XTech '99 Conference (March 7 - 11, 1999, San Jose, California). "Gecko is the embeddable, open-source, 'next generation' layout and rendering engine currently in development on mozilla.org. Gecko will be the core rendering component in Netscape Navigator 5.0. Among other standards, Gecko supports XML, CSS, DOM Level 1 and XSL. This talk provides an overview of the features of Gecko, specifically those related to the display of XML documents and the application of the Level 1 DOM. . . XML, like HTML, is a native document type for NGLayout. Specifically, NGLayout can display XML documents with linked CSS style sheets. Stay tuned to this page for more information about XML support in NGLayout. . . See the slides from the presentation, the books example, and the table of contents example. See also the annotated conference program listing."

[March 22, 1999] "Expanded XML Support in Internet Explorer 5." By Charlie Heinemann. In extreme xml [Column] (March 18, 1999). ". . . some good new stuff: expanded XML support in Microsoft Internet Explorer 5. [Easier Visual Basic Access to the XML Object Model;} Back in June, I explained to you a little about the troubles of a cousin and in the process gave you a glimpse of some of the datatype support within the Microsoft XML parser. In that article I provided you with some Microsoft Visual Basic code that accessed the parser and navigated some data. With Internet Explorer 5, accessing the parser and navigating the XML Object Model (XML OM) is even easier than before. There is no more casting DOMNodes to XMLDOMNodes. Now you simply have to work with four basic objects: XMLDOMDocument, XMLDOMNode, XMLDOMNodeList, XMLDOMNamedNodeMap. . . [More Control over Parsing:] The parser in Internet Explorer 5 allows you to choose whether or not you would like to validate your data, even if it has a schema or DTD associated with it, and whether or not you would like to resolve externals such as entities. The two properties that provide this functionality, validateOnParse and resolveExternals, are independent of one another. This means that you can choose not to validate the document, but still retrieve the entities. " Also explained: "A Better Way to Post to the Server", "New Built-in Support for Saving Your XML Back to a File", "Transforming XML Nodes to Objects". This article references several other recent articles on Internet Explorer 5.

[March 22, 1999] "Internet Explorer 5: All Power to the Document Object Model." By Rebecca Norlander. In SBN Magazine (March 18, 1999). "As the Web continues to evolve into the next great application platform, the power of dynamically manipulated content on the client machine becomes more important in creating truly interactive experiences. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Document Object Model (DOM) is a step in the evolution of the ways we manipulate elements on a page, whether it's creating, inserting, modifying, moving, or deleting. The combined power of Internet Explorer's object model, its support for Dynamic HTML (DHTML), and its support of the W3C DOM mark a great advance toward making Internet Explorer a powerful application development platform for the Web. This article focuses on using the DOM through script on HTML files; the DOM is also accessible through a set of COM Interfaces. While you could accomplish many of the things I'm going to discuss in browser versions previous to Internet Explorer 5, they previously required a lot more developer knowledge, ingenuity, and -- above all -- time than they now do."

[March 22, 1999] "XML Servers Aid Biz-To-Biz Translation." By Ellis Booker. In InternetWeek Issue 757 (March 22, 1999), page 19. "As users awake to the power of XML for integratingenterprise applications or e-commerce, a new server category, the XML server, is emerging. These dedicated platforms, which promise to offload XML document storage, translation, and manipulation, sport an XML-parsing engine plus utilities for processing XML documents, vocabularies, and ways to link all this to legacy systems. Microsoft earlier this month announced its BizTalk Server, which will be accompanied by industry-specific XML 'vocabularies' for e-commerce and the like. BizTalk, due in the second half of the year, also will be a major part of Microsoft Commerce Server, the successor to Microsoft Site Server Commerce Edition 3.0."

[March 22, 1999] "SAP, Peoplesoft To Support Framework -- Going to bat for BizTalk>" By Scott Tiazkun. In Computer Reseller News Issue 834 (March 22, 1999). "Both SAP AG and PeopleSoft Inc. went to bat for Microsoft Corp.'s new electronic-commerce venture, vowing to use the BizTalk framework for their business applications. PeopleSoft, Pleasanton, Calif., plans to work with Microsoft to develop its PeopleSoft Business Network (PSBN), said PeopleSoft executives. PSBN, first discussed in November, will deliver applications over the Internet to end users. Within the next six months, the two companies will develop new XML schemas for document interchange between the SAP Business Framework and Microsoft's BizTalk framework." See also "BizTalk Framework."

[March 22, 1999] "Integration Software Links XML to Supply Chain." By Stacy Collett. In Computerworld (March 15, 1999). "A San Ramon, Calif.-based software company is using the Extensible Markup Language (XML) to push the envelope of supply-chain integration tools. OnDisplay Inc. last week began offering XML support for its stand-alone electronic-business integration software. XML is a Web-based formatting language that allows users to categorize and structure data that's transmitted over the Internet. OnDisplay's integration software, called CenterStage, helps companies integrate supplier catalogs, bring in content from other Web sites and facilitate data conversion in enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations."

[March 22, 1999] "XML servers enabling e-comm and Web models." By Robin S. Hohman. In Network World Volume 16, Number 11 (March 15, 1999), page 30. XML server tools are starting to appear, but a revolution is already in the making, particularly in the fast-paced world of e-commerce. In the past year, Extensible Markup Language (XML) has come a long way from being just an extension of HTML. XML is now vying with electronic data interchange for new business-to-business applications over intranets, extranets and the Internet."

[March 22, 1999] "Searching for XML or: 'In search of XML'." By Jason Meserve. In Network World [Fusion] Volume 16, Number 11 (March 15, 1999), pages 1, 36. "XML could provide a standard metadata language for site developers, such as Northern Light and authors, such as its partners. Web crawlers would have to travel no further than the XML tags to know exactly what is on any given page. The impetus to support XML in their crawler would have to come from people and companies developing sites with XML, said Sprague. At the moment, most sites are sticking with the tried and true HTML. 'There is just so much HTML out there,' Sprague says. Northern Light is not alone in shunning XML when it comes to scouring the Web. Lycos, AltaVista and Excite also dismiss XML."

[March 17, 1999] "Microsoft takes aim at language barriers to business information." By Dylan Tweney. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 11 (March 15, 1999), page 59. ". . .'"data languages' comprise the vocabularies and grammars used to encode business data from accounting, manufacturing, purchasing, shipping, and payroll systems -- to name a few. And, with some exceptions (such as electronic data interchange, or EDI), there are very few common data languages in the business world. Microsoft wants to change that, using an Extensible Markup Language-based (XML) business data language the company is calling BizTalk. With the BizTalk standard, documents such as purchase orders, invoices, and product catalogs can be encoded in a common format, regardless of which applications generated and processed those documents. Microsoft's vision of BizTalk is bigger than simply facilitating business-to-business transactions. For Microsoft, this language also represents the possibility of more easily integrating applications within a single company -- for instance, linking enterprise resource planning and manufacturing programs."

[March 22, 1999] "IE 5.0 Arrives This Week With Fixes, but Few Bells and Whistles." By Nate Zelnick. In Internet World Volume 5, Issue 10 (March 15, 1999), page 5. "Microsoft's release this week of Internet Explorer 5.0 highlights how much the power of browsers has diminished since the last big browser brouhaha two years ago. Thus there are almost no IE-specific tricks in IE5 and improvements are mostly under the hood. A new, fast XML parsing engine supports the W3C's Document Object Model and Namespace recommendations while the rendering engine displays XML documents with a default hierarchy. XML can also be displayed using CSS or transformed into HTML (or anything else) with an XSL "preview" component. IE5 also fixes many of IE4's broken features. For the first time, IE supports the "Expires" meta attribute. Now a page that changes daily, for instance, will be served out of the browser's cache until its expiration time passes."

[March 22, 1999] "Web Consortium Specifies Namespaces in XML." By [Staff]. In ent [Online] Volume 4, Number 5 (March 10, 1999), page 41. Note on the significance of the W3C Recommendation Namespaces in XML.

[March 22, 1999] "Explorer 5.0 doesn't follow Web standards 100%, some developers complain." By Tom Diederich. In Computerworld (March 19, 1999). "Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer 5.0 may be an improvement over Version 4.0, but it still doesn't fully support key Internet standards, an international coalition of Web developers said today. 'We realize that many business considerations go into selecting a release date, but we wish Microsoft had delayed Internet Explorer 5.0's release to focus on getting standards support right,' said George Olsen, project leader of the Web Standards Project."

[March 20, 1999] "XML to Play Bigger Role in Development." By Michael Vizard and Ted Smalley Bowen. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 12 (March 22, 1999), pages 1, 28. "As part of an effort to make its technology more accessible to developers, IBM plans to deliver during the next 12 months an Extensible Markup Language (XML) toolkit within its WebSphere Studio application development environment. With the increasing deployment of Internet-commerce applications escalating the demand for robust transaction processing infrastructures, IBM needs to find a way to make its application server technology - including CICS mainframe query system, MQSeries, and IBM Transarc Lab middleware - easier to work with for a broad range of developers. Currently, the only way developers can invoke these technologies is through either their existing set of complex native interfaces or by writing an application that makes use of JavaBeans. However, IBM now plans to make a third path to these technologies available by leveraging XML. For customers, this means that they can make use of IBM's transaction processing technologies without necessarily having to hire developers that are fluent in either IBM's native interface technologies or in Java."

[March 20, 1999] "Netscape, WSP criticize [MS Internet Explorer 5.0] 'Innovations'." By Dylan Tweney, Dana Gardner, and Emily Fitzloff. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 12 (March 22, 1999), pages 1, 26. ". . . officials at browser rival Netscape, now a division of America Online, downplayed the Internet Explorer 5.0 product as a relatively minor release with a desktop-centric focus that misses the new developments on the Web. According to a Netscape white paper, Internet Explorer 5.0 is too large at 50MB and lacks such standards as Resource Description Framework and the Document Object Model (DOM). The WSP agreed with Netscape that Internet Explorer 5.0 falls short on standards support, and even issued a press release stating that such failures could lead to further fragmentation of the Web. Although Internet Explorer 5.0 makes major improvements compared to Internet Explorer 4.0, the product will require extensive "work-arounds and debugging" by Web developers, the WSP stated. The standards-related problems in Internet Explorer, as reported by the WSP, include, but are not limited to: a) failure to fully support Cascading Style Sheets 1.0; b) 'spotty at best' support for DOM 1.0; c) bugs in Internet Explorer 5.0's interpretation of XML data; d) implementation of an experimental version of XSL that could result in incompatibility with the actual XSL standard when it is finalized; e) and bugs and missing features in HTML 4.0 support.' Gecko, initially on the 32-bit Windows, Mac OS, and Linux platforms, will offer full support for XML and partial early support for XSL, as well as include the Expat XML parser. Full support for the World Wide Web Consortium's Cascading Style Sheets and DOM is also planned."

[March 20, 1999] "Personal Portals Make a Play for the Palm of Your Hand." By Michael Lattig. In InfoWorld Volume 21, Issue 12 (March 19, 1999), page 8. "MicroStrategy's solution, DSS Broadcaster 5.5, relies on a database backbone to analyze and extrapolate personalized information that can then be pushed to users through their device of choice. In contrast, Oracle's solution, dubbed Project Panama, is designed to allow users access to existing Web content through wireless devices using a pull method. MicroStrategy DSS Broadcaster, Version 5.5, works as part of a suite of products designed to access and analyze information stored in a company's relational database. That information is then personalized based on a user's demands, and delivered to a remote device as needed by the user. The latest version of DSS Broadcaster, which will ship at the end of this month, includes Extensible Markup Language (XML) support, allowing it to deliver personalized information in the form of dynamic Web pages to e-mail clients that support HTML. Users can then access and interact with the data they receive as if it were a Web page."

[March 20, 1999] "Internet Explorer 5 Falls Short On Standards Support, Web Developers Forced to Continue Workarounds." By [George Olsen and] The Web Standards Project. From The Web Standards Project (March 19, 1999). [for example:] "Unfortunately, Internet Explorer is heavily biased in favor of the still-experimental XSL (if a page provides both CSS and XSL, Internet Explorer chooses XSL). This is totally unacceptable given that CSS has been a stable standard since 1996, and XSL is still very far from being finished. Also, the Microsoft XSL examples include proprietary keywords and syntax that do not appear in any of the W3C drafts being used to develop the actual XSL standard." See the text of this paper from The Web Standards Project for details. [local archive copy]

[March 19, 1999] "XML in XML. [XML Support in IE 5.]" By Tim Bray. From XML.com (March 18, 1999). "[Microsoft officially released Internet Explorer 5 and XML.com's technical editor Tim Bray finds that though the final release of IE5 has some nice features for the XML community, its XML implementation is still a little buggy. The event that motivates publishing this article at this time is, of course, the arrival of Microsoft Internet Explorer Release 5.] The plan was that this story would cover XML in IE5, including the base language, setting up the server, CSS, XSL, and the DOM. Unfortunately, we had a hard deadline (IE5 went public on March 18th), and when it arrived, I'd invested so much time in learning XSL, without getting anything based on the public drafts working in IE5, that it occupied all the time we'd budgeted for both that and the DOM. We'll keep struggling with XSL until we get something that actually works and plays by the rules. Following that, we'll go on and do some DOM coverage. While we will try out one or two things in the bleeding-edge pre-alpha Netscape 'Gecko' code, the main focus of this article is publishing and browsing XML in a standards-compliant way using IE5. Of course, when there is actually some sort of real released product from Netscape, we'll publish an even more interesting article - how to publish and browse XML in an interoperable way. [. . .] In Conclusion: Is the glass half-empty or half-full? It's too early to call; rendering XML with CSS is nice (and will be even nicer once IE 5.x fixes a few more bugs), but the real value-add of XML in the browser isn't so much displaying it as processing it right there in the browser. For that, you need the DOM; if IE5 turns out to have a nice clean usable DOM, that will make up for a lot of little awkwardness in the parser. If not, this will look like a (huge amount of) wasted effort."

[March 19, 1999] "Microsoft Unveils IE 5, Confirms Interim Windows 98." By Dylan Tweney. In InfoWorld (March 18, 1999). "The new Explorer contains improved search tools, including an enhanced AutoSearch feature that lets users type words and phrases into the URL bar to find Web content. The browser offers full support for the Extensible Markup Language 1.0 and the Extensible Stylesheet Language, as well as the Vector Markup Language graphics description language and Web Distributed Access and Versioning remote file access protocol, Gates said. Key enhancements in Windows 98, Second Edition, will include a pre-installed Internet Explorer 5.0; Internet connection sharing technology that allows home users to connect multiple devices to the Internet via a single PC."

[March 19, 1999] "Sun, Adobe Post $90,000 Prize for XSL Implementation." By Liora Alschuler. From XML.com (March 15, 1999). "Frustrated with the slow pace of application development for rendering XML content, Sun Microsystems and Adobe are offering $90,000 in grants to individuals or corporations who can deliver applications to jumpstart XSL. Sun will offer $30,000 for the development of an XSL formatting engine for Mozilla. Sun and Adobe are each offering $30,000 for an XSL batch formatter written in Java that produces documents in Portable Document Format (PDF). The two firms announced that $40,000 will go to a first prize winner and $20,000 to a second prize winner." See also "Sun, Adobe Offer Bounty for XSL." By Paul Festa. In CNET News.com (March 9, 1999); and "Sun, Adobe Offer Cash for Creativity, via XML Development Competitions." By James C. Luh. In Internet World (March 15, 1999).

[March 19, 1999] "XTech '99: Momentum Builds in the IT Sector. A Quieter Event, But No Letdown in Progress." By Liora Alschuler. From XML.com (March 15, 1999). "This year, at both Xtech and Seybold Seminars, the browser implementations were overshadowed by XML adoption by other heavyweights in the computer industry. Proclamations of strategic directions and product announcements by Sun, IBM, Lotus, Oracle, Adobe, and Object Store underscore the new thinking about XML: it is not just simplified SGML; it is not just a better way to publish to the Web or to interchange data; it is a standard central to the future development of our high-tech, information-handling infrastructure." See similarly by Alschuler (extracted): "XTech '99: Mainstream Vendors Join the Rugged Frontier" in