Exercise 11. XML Introduction

1. The generic tool to parse XML documents are the browsers but other tools are also available in the market.

i) XMLPARSE at http://www.gnu.org/software/gnustep/resources/documentation/Developer/Tools/Reference/xmlparse.html

ii) expat - XML Parser Toolkit Version 1.2 at http://webdesign.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.jclark.com/xml/expat.html

iii) LARK - http://webdesign.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.textuality.com/Lark/

2. The benefits of adopting a schema standardised for a business sector enables

i) the exchange of documents between different people and organizations in much structured manner ;
ii) the control of namespace according to http://www.W3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance allows for easier validation of documents ;
iii) allowing global standardardisation using pre-defined namespace that is muched needed.


3. SMIL stands for Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language, and is a XML markup language endorsed by W3C for describing multimedia presentations. It defines markup for timing, layout, animations, visual transitions, and media embedding, among other things.

This techonology will enable the users to make web presentation of with a variety of media items such as text, images, video, and audio, as well as links to other SMIL presentations, and files from multiple web servers. SMIL markup is written in XML, and has similarities to plain old html syntax.

It is specificlly useful for applying to the use of multimedia presentationon the web. As of Dec 1, 2008, The SYMM Working Group at W3C.org has published the SMIL 3.0 Recommendation.