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XML Glossary
A B C
D E F
G H I
J K L
M N O
P Q R
S T U
V W X
Acrobat
Reader
A tool by Adobe to view and print PDF files. Acrobat
Reader is freely distributable.
Activated Intelligence
A
vendor of XML/XSL tools
in Java,
e.g. the XSL processor AXSL
that is now probably a part of the new EZ/X suite of core XML tools
for Java. Homepage
ActiveX
Phrase appearing everywhere COM
technology is used, e.g. ActiveXControl, ActiveXServer,
etc.
ActiveXControl
A COM
object that can be loaded from a server via inter- or intranet and
run on any NT-client. In contrast to Java
applets, ActiveXControls do not run in a sandbox, e.g. the
security restrictions are not too strict. Thus downloading
ActiveXControls is only recommended using intranets. Examples for
ActiveXControls are XMLDOM
and XMLHTTP. Homepage
Adept
SGML
editor by ArborText. Homepage
Adobe
Vendor
of (among others) SGML/XML
tools, e.g. the Acrobat Reader, FrameMaker, FrameMaker+SGML, and SVG
stuff. Homepage
Ælfred
XML
parser in Java
supporting the SAX
interface, originally from Microstar Software Ltd. Microstar was
acquired by Open Text Corporation in September 1999. Homepage
alphaWorks
Internet
information forum by IBM, providing internet technologies, esp. XML
tools, e.g. the XML editor Xeena and the XML parser XML4J. These
tools have previously been available as free downloads. Recently,
IBM also made them available for commercial licensing. Homepage
Apache
Can
refer to either the Apache Digital Corporation, a company building
web servers, or the Apache Software Foundation, hosting Apache
open-source software projects, e.g. the Apache HTTP Server or
Tomcat. The Apache Software Foundation incorporates, among others,
the Apache XML Project (xml.apache.org) consisting of Xerces,
Xalan,
Cocoon,
FOP,
Xang, and SOAP.
The xml.apache.org project has the support of, among others, IBM and
Sun.
API
Application
Programming Interface, the Java-API
e.g. consists of the packages 'java.AWT' for building GUIs,
'java.io' to handle IO, etc.
applet
see
Java
applet.
ArborText
Vendor of SGML/XML
tools, e.g. the Adept
editor and the documentation system Epic. Homepage.
architectural form
Parts of
an architectural DTD that
are meant to be used as element-
and attribute-models
within SGML
documents. Documents that contain instances of these element- and
attribute-models must refer to the resp. architectural DTD via an
'Architecture Use Declaration PI'.
ASCII-Protocols
ASCII-Protocols
are communication protocols which can be assigned to the OSI
communication layer 7 (application layer). Within
ASCII-Protocols, commands, and arguments are sent as plain text
between the partners.
ASP
Active
Server Pages, Microsoft's technology to enables HTML
pages to be dynamic and interactive by embedding scripts, i.e.
either VBScript or JScript,
Microsoft's alternative of JavaScript.
Since the scripts in ASP pages (suffix .asp) are processed by the
server, any browser can work with ASP pages regardless of its
support for the scripting language used therein.
Attribute
Within »start tags«,
attribute-value-pairs can be assigned to elements containing
information about its content. E.g. <element
attribute=™value™>.
authentification
Possibility to
sign a message that enables the receiver to make sure where the
message came from and that it has not been changed after having been
signed, see e.g. XML-Signature.
AxKit
Apache
XML Delivery Toolkit, a suite of XML processing tools in Perl,
for delivering XML to
clients using XSLT on
the server side. AxKit uses gingerall's
Sablotron
as an XSLT engine. Homepage
AXSL
Activated
XSL, XSL
processor by Activated
Intelligence. Homepage
B2B
Business-to-Business, a way of describing
the processing of business transactions over the Internet. B2B is
one of the main application areas for XML.
Balise
Toolset by AIS for developing
document conversion systems. Balise HTML Package is a stylesheet
developer for Conversion from SGML/XML to HTML. Homepage.
Base64
An
encoding for binary data as described as a means of encoding email
bodies in the IETF's MIME RFC. Base64 consists only of 64 encoding
characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9, +, /) that are a subset of
US-ASCII.
BLOB
Binary
large object, something that (e.g. within the context of XML) is
treated and esp. gets stored as a whole without further structuring
efforts.
Bluestone
Software vendor in the Java, XML area,
e.g. providing XwingML. Homepage.
BML
Bean Markup Language, a
means of describing a JavaBeans component application in XML
Bolero
Business Objects Language
EnviROnment, application factory for electronic business by Software
AG,
released Oktober 98. It contains a proprietary object oriented
language that compiles to Java
bytecode. All development data is kept in a repository. In addition
to Java, Bolero supports features as long transactions, patterns and
persistent classes (JRB)
incl. OQL
retrieval.
Breeze
Software vendor and tool in the Java /
XML
area. Breeze Factor LLC. provides the Breeze XML Studio that binds
XML to JavaBeans. The Breeze Factor LLC Homepage,
CALS
Standard
for modelling tables in SGML/XML, e.g.
contained in DocBook.
- CALS DTD,
an SGML Open Technical Memorandum on Robin Covers SGML/XML
Page.
Candidate
Recommendation
(http://www.w3.org/TR/#CR)
A W3C
document type which follows the 'last call' Working Draft and
precedes the Proposed Recommendation. It is an explicit call to
those outside of the related Working Groups or the W3C itself for
implementation and technical feedback.
Catalog
File that contains additional
information for SGML
documents. Catalogs are esp. read by SGML parsers. Catalog
information includes external
entities or the DTD.
Cascading StyleSheets (CSS)
Simple
language defined by the W3C to format HTML documents. CSS is
partially supported by all common browsers today. The second version
of CSS also supports voice output.
CDATA
Character Data, part of an SGML or
XML
document, that is not parsed and may therefore contain almost any
character sequence. A 'CDATA-Section'
begins with "<![CDATA[" and ends with "]]>".
CDATA
Section
A section within an XML document in which no markup
is identified. CDATA sections therefore allow for the direct input
of characters such as "&" and "<".
CDF = Channel
Definition Format
Channel Definition Format, an XML
application. CDF on
Robin Cover's SGML/XML page.
CGI
Common
Gateway Interface, a standard for external gateway programs to
interface with information servers such as HTTP servers. The current
version is CGI/1.1. Proprietary standards extending CGI are e.g.
Netscape 's NSAPI and Microsoft's ISAPI, the API of the Internet
Information Servers (IIS).
- CGI Documentation
on the NCSA Server (NCSA = National Center for Supercomputing
Applications) at the University of Illinois at Urbana.
CML
Chemical
Markup Language, an XML
schema, to handle information concerning chemical substances, Homepage.
Cocoon
An XML
publishing framework written in Java on
top of DOM (rsp.
SAX)
and XSL.
- Cocoon at the
Apache XML Project.
- Cocoon2 , a
redesign of Cocoon using SAX as its API instead of DOM.
COM
Component
Object Model, the MS-paradigm to connect components. MS has
implemented the base technology for COM on the NT platform. Software
AG has ported these on MVS and UNIX. A COM-object defines its
interfaces. Components from different machines can be combined using
DCOM
.
Component
A piece of software, program,
dynamic link library, or shared library covering a single or
multiple tasks, normally covering a whole functional aspect of a
system.
Construction Rules
Definition
for the processing of elements within XSL;
consists of a pattern and an action following this
pattern.
Cookie
A
small amount of state data stored permanently or temporarily by the
client. Cookies are transmitted to and from the server and allow a
web site to remember things about the client, e.g. whether the user
has previously visited the site. Cookies can be written and read by
CGI and JavaScript scripts.
CORBA
Common
Object Request Broker Architecture: CORBA is an architecture and
specification for creating, distributing, and managing distributed
program objects in a network. It allows programs at different
locations and developed by different vendors to communicate in a
network through an "interface broker." CORBA was developed under the
auspices of the OMG (Object Management Group) and has been
sanctioned by both ISO and X/Open as the standard architecture for
distributed objects (also known as components).
CSS
Cascading
Style Sheets, a W3C
Recommendation. Stylesheets
when attached to documents describe how the document is displayed or
printed, e.g. a CSS sheet is attached to an HTML
document, to influence its layout when accessed via a browser. CSS
supports cascading, i.e. a single document may use two or more
stylesheets that are than applied according to specified priorities
(=cascade). See also CSS2 and
CSS3.
CSS2
Stylesheet
language that extends CSS.
Different from CSS1, CSS2 is applicable to XML.
CSS3
Recent
development regarding CSS. The
W3C's
style working group tries publishing this standard in a modularized
way, i.e. there are multiple Working Drafts pertaining to
CSS3.
CVS
concurrent
versioning system, software for accessing source code repositories,
e.g. used in the Apache
XML project.
DataChannel
Vendor of an XML
server. Homepage.
Data
Map
The Data Map is Tamino's knowledge base. It contains
the schemas that hold the rules according to which XML
objects are stored and composed. These schemas are entered by the
administrator.
DBCS = Double
Byte Character Set
One of a number of character sets defined for
representing Chinese, Japanese, and Korean text, e.g., JIS X
0208-1990. These character sets are often encoded in such a way as
to allow mixing double byte character encodings with single byte
character encodings.
DCD
Document
Content Description, a means of describing XML
schemata. DCDs are an extension of XML-Data. In contrast to DTDs,
DCDs may not only specify element- and attribute-structure but their
data types as well, see W3C
Submission.
DCOM =
Distributed COM
Distributed COM,
impementing systems by combining components that are located on
different machines.
DDML
Document
Definition Markup Language, a means of describing XML
schemata, former name XSchema.
DHTML
Dynamic
HTML, a standard extending HTML,
consisting of HTML 4.0, CSS, DOM and
scripting languages e.g. ECMAScript (ECMA = The European Computer
Manufacturers Association).
DocBook
SGML and
XML
DTDs and
DSSSL/XSL
stylesheets originally from the Davenport Group, i.e. Norman Walsh,
now owned by OASIS,
for modelling and converting manuals.
docproc
A
Java class-library to process and layout XML
documents using XSL.
Document Type Definition
(DTD)
See »DTD«
DocZilla
Web browser by CITEC that is
supposed to be able to render XML, SGML,
and HTML
documents. DocZilla is based on Netscape's Mozilla
open-source project. It uses CSS and
additional features from CSS2 to
render XML and SGML directly and also supports the DOM
accessed through JavaScript.
DocZilla Alpha 3 runs on WinNT/95/98 and Linux.
DOM
Document
Object Model, a platform independent interface for accessing HTML and
XML
documents usable from within programming and scripting languages.
The DOM presents documents in an object oriented fashion. A DOM
interface is e.g. provided by Microsoft's XMLDOM
ActiveXControl.
DOM exists in three levels. DOM Level 1 is a W3C
Recommendation and is currently supported by lots of
implementations. DOM Level 2 extends DOM Level 1 w.r.t., among
others, access to the DTD and
namespaces.
DOM Level 2 is yet a W3C Proposed Recommendation. DOM Level 2 is
specified in a modularized document structure, i.e. Core
Specification, HTML Specification, Views Specification, Style
Specification, Events Specification, and Traversal-Range
Specification. Core is the entry point to read the specification.
The DOM group has recently published a first suggestion for DOM
Level 3.
DSC
DSSSL
Syntax Checker, an online syntax checker, normaliser and
implementation framework for DSSSL,
based on embedding a full R4RS Scheme interpreter in James Clark's
SP parser, current version is 2.0. It is available for
download.
DSSSL
Document Style Semantics and
Specification Language, A stylesheet language for SGML and
XML
documents. A subset of DSSSL (DSSSL-O)
is implemented by James Clark's Jade. A
freeware syntax checker for DSSSL is Henry Thompson's DSC.
- James Clark's DSSSL Page,
- OpenJade, the
site for the DSSSL user group,
- A list of DSSSL Tutorials
by Frank Boumphrey,
- The DSSSL Documentation
Project, a collective effort to write a DSSSL documentation,
hosting among others the 'DSSSL Handbook' and the 'DSSSL
Cookbook',
- The DSSSList Homepage.
DTD
Document
Type Definition, Schema specification method for SGML and
XML
documents. DTDs are either contained in the document or belong to
its external subset and are then referenced from within the
document's document type declaration per URI.
Known DTDs are e.g. DocBook,
CML,
IBTWSH,
and HTML.
dtd2html generates HTML documentation for SGML DTDs. For XML, DTDs
will be replaced by the new XML Schema specification
method.
dtd2html
A
Perl
program that generates an HTML
document that documents an SGML DTD and
allows hypertext navigation of the DTD. dtd2html is part of the perlSGML
package.
DynaTag
A
tool to transform existing word processing documents into SGML/XML by
Enigma Inc.
DynaText
SGML/XML
viewer by Enigma Inc.
EarthWeb
Webseite for career development
and technical information on, among others, Java, XML, and
networking (successor of Gamelan).
e-business
electronic business, see e-commerce.
ebXML
electronic business XML, A project
jointly initiated by UN/CEFACT (= The United Nations body for Trade
Facilitation and Electronic Business) and OASIS
to standardize XML
business specifications. ebXML intends to develop a technical
framework that will enable XML to be utilized in a consistent manner
for the exchange of all electronic business data.
e-commerce
electronic commerce, also
e-business, a term for all kinds of business that are established
electronically especially over the Internet.
This includes both electronic sale (internet shops) and B2B
transactions, i.e. business between two companies. For e-commerce
standards and/or standardization bodies see ebXML,
EDI,
or RosettaNet.
EDI
Electronic
Data Interchange, Contact between companies exchanging orders via
intra- or internet. A standard for that is EDIFACT
(Electronic Commerce). This can be more secure using
internet-tunneling, i.e. two partners use connections that can not
be accessed by anybody else.
EDIFACT
United Nations rules For EDI For
Administration, Commerce And Transport, ISO standard
9735.
EJB
Enterprise Java Beans, a set of JavaBeans,
currently being developed by Sun to
support development of distributed applications.
Element
Component of an XML
instance marked by »start
tag« and »end
tag«. Both tags enclose the content of the element. Exception:
The »empty
element«.
Element, empty
In contrast to the
non-empty element, the empty element does not necessarily contain a
»start tag« and an »end tag« (but can contain them). Empty elements
can also be described with <element/>. But this is only useful
if attributes
exist within the elements.
End tag
Last part of the mark of a
non-empty element; the name of the element is enclosed in »<« and
»/>«, e.g. </element>.
EntireX
Software AG product supporting DCOM and
wrapping, among others this enables integrating legacy applications
(e.g. on the mainframe) and GUI-frontends. The EntireX Internet
site.
entity
A
part of an SGML or
XML
document or DTD.
Entities that contain schema information and are referred to from a
DTD are called parameter entities. Entities may contain data that is
given within the document, i.e. at the very point the entity is
declared. An other form of entity is the external entity that
contains a URI that
points towards the data. If the URI is a PUBLICID it points towards
a catalog entry that resolves the PUBLICID to a URL. Thus
referring external entities supports indirection. Catalogs are,
however, not supported in XML.
An entity is a reference to data that is
used for content reuse and document size minimization. Developers
can use entities to simplify the management of information that
appears repeatedly. XML Authority refers to entities as
reusables.
EPIC
XML
editor and publisher by ArborText
ERP
ERP
(enterprise resource planning) is an industry term for the broad set
of activities supported by multi-module application software that
help a manufacturer or other business manage the important parts of
its business, including product planning, parts purchasing,
maintaining inventories, interacting with suppliers, providing
customer service, and tracking orders.
eXcelon
eXcelon Corp., former Object
Design, vendor of XML/B2B
tools, among others, eXcelon
Stylus and Object Store (an OO database).
- The eXcelon corp. Homepage,
- The Announcement 'Object Design
Renames and Repositions as XML Player eXcelon' from February 02,
2000
eXcelon
Stylus
A visual editor for XSLT
stylesheets owned by eXcelon
corp., former Object Design.
expat
XML
parser toolkit in C originally written by James Clark. James' last
release was 1.2 after which the expat maintenance was handed over to
a team of developers led by Clark Cooper, the maintainer of the Perl
expat binding, XML::Parser.
extensibility
Vendor of XML
tools, e.g. XML
Authority, a graphical design tool for e.g. XML
Schemas, and XML
Instance a schema-sensitive XML editor.
Extensible Markup
Language
See »XML«.
Extensible Style
Language
See »XSL«.
external
entity
Part of an XML
document that is not contained in the document, but is referred to
via a URI.
External entities
may be parsed or unparsed entities. The entity is unparsed, if the
entity declaration mentions a notation.
The parser thus presumes the entity to contain data that can only be
dealt with using the application mentioned in the respective
notation declaration.
FAQ
Frequently
Asked Questions
Flow
Object
A term of »DSSSL«.
All output components
of DSSSL, such as pages, paragraphs, tables, and characters are flow
objects. They are called flow objects because they flow to their
final place during the formatting.
FO
formatting
objects
FOP
A Java
application by James Tauber that translates XML
documents to PDF
making use of XSL's formatting
objects. At 9th November FOP has been donated to the Apache
XML project.
formatting objects
XSL FO, a
paradigm in XSL that
is similar to DSSSL's
idea of flow objects. Rendering an XML
document using an XSL stylesheet is done via transforming the input
document into another document represented internally as a tree. The
structure of this tree corresponds to the structure the document is
intended to be represented on screen or in print. The nodes of the
tree are formatting objects (e.g. paragraphs, blocks, etc.). This
tree is then formatted into the output by rendering the elements of
the XML document (the tree nodes, i.e. the formatting objects) as
described using the formatting properties specified for the
formatting objects within the stylesheet. The first step,
transforming the input XML document into the XSL FO instance, is
done by an XSLT processor. See XSLT for
more information esp. on XSLT implementations. The second step,
rendering the XSL FO instance, is done by a renderer. For engines
supporting XSL formatting objects see XSL
FO.
FOSI
Format
Output Specification Language, a vendor independent stylesheet
language e.g. used for designing the layout of SGML and
XML
documents in Arbortext's
Adept
editor.
Fourthought
A company providing
custom software solutions for businesses, developing a suite of XML
software components in Python.
- The Fourthought Site incl. free
downloads.
FTP
File
Transmission Protocol, a standard Internet
protocol to exchange files on top of TCP/IP.
FTP is used, among others, to downloading programs and other files
to your computer from other servers.
GCA
Graphic
Communications Association, a nonprofit organization hosting XML
events, e.g. XML Europe 2000. Homepage.
Gecko
The
next generation of Netscape's browsers (i.e. Netscape
Navigator), built as a part of the open source Mozilla
project. Gecko supports XML, DOM 1.0,
and CSS. Products
and Downloads.
generic
identifier
An element's name within an HTML, SGML or
XML
document that is given in the tag between < and >.
GI
generic
identifier
Generic
Markup
»Generic/creative markup«:
In contrast to HTML,
one can be really creative in XML and
SGML
concerning the element
names used. One can name them according to there significance for
the structure i.e. according to their kind. One can theoretically
give them whatever name one wants. In HTML, the element types
(=names) and their numbers are fixed.
gingerall
Ginger Alliance Ltd., a
vendor of XML
tools, i.e. the XML distribution architecture 'Charlie' and the XSLT
processor Sablotron.
Homepage.
GML
»Generalized Markup Language« predecessor of
SGML
developed in the sixties by Charles Goldfarb, Edward Mosher, Raymond
Lorie, and others at IBM.
HTML
Hypertext Markup Language,
document type consisting of text and tags, that rule e.g. layout and
hyperlinking. An HTML file has extension ‘.htm’ or ‘.html’,
the content type is ‘html’. Java
applets can be included using the <APPLET> tag. The
current version is HTML 4.0. Extensions of HTML are CSS (a
stylesheet language that may govern the layout without touching the
content), DHTML
(include dynamic behaviour), and XML
(semantical instead of presentational tags), and XHTML
(XML-compatible HTML).
HTTP
Hypertext Transfer Protocol,
an application protocol, i.e. a set of rules for exchanging files on
the World Wide Web that runs on top of TCP/IP.
The latest version is HTTP 1.1 as published by an IETF's
RFC.
The W3C
pursues HTTP within its architecture domain. Access to
HTTP requests is, among others, enabled using the XMLHTTP
ActiveXControl.
HTTPS = Secure Hypertext Transfer
Protocol
HTTPS is a web protocol that encrypts and
decrypts user page requests as well as the pages that are
returned by the web server."
HyBrick
A former SGML/XML
browser by Fujitsu, incl. a DSSSL
interface. HyBrick used James Clark's SP and Jade. It
is no longer available.
hyperlink
On the Web or other
hypertext systems, hyperlink is a synonym for both link and
hypertext link. Possibly, the term originated because "link" was not
felt to be specific enough. And it's shorter than "hypertext
link."
hypermedia
Hypermedia, a term
derived from hypertext, extends the notion of the hypertext link to
include links among any set of multimedia objects, including sound,
motion video, and virtual reality.
hypertext
Hypertext is the
organization of information units into connected associations that a
user can choose to make. An instance of such an association is
called a link or hypertext link.
HyTime
Hypermedia/Time-based
Structuring Language, linking-standard for SGML,
partly predecessor of XLL, the
linking standard for XML.
I18N
Internationalization. The process of
planning and developing products so that they can be changed to meet
the requirements of specific local languages and
cultures.
IBTWSH
Itsy
Bitsy Teeny Weeny Simple Hypertext DTD, an
XML
DTD being a subset of the HTML
DTD. This DTD when combined with other DTDs using the namespaces
paradign, enables structured comments to be included in documents,
DTD, Version 5.0.
ICE
Information
& Content Exchange, an XML
protocol for exchanging and integrating business data.
IDL = Interface
Definition Language
Language for defining interfaces enabling
communication between modules implemented in different
languages.
IE5
Internet
Explorer, Microsoft browser, current version is 5.0.
IETF
Internet
Engineering Task Force, the body that defines standard Internet
operating protocols such as TCP/IP, URIs,
etc. The IETF's main documents are the RFCs.
IIS
Internet
Information Server, Web-server, part of the Windows NT Server,
supports ISAPI.
Image
map
An HTML
feature using the <MAP> and <AREA> tags to define
mouse-sensitive regions within an HTML page.
Inline Link
Link element
containing the source itself, for example the a-element in HTML via
the href-attribute.
InStranet
Company providing web content
management systems. Homepage.
Internet
A
a worldwide system of computer networks based on the TCP/IP
set of protocols. Its most widely used parts are electronic mail
(e-mail) and the World
Wide Web (WWW).
Intershop
Vendor of electronic business
solutions. Homepage.
Intranet
A
private network that is contained within an enterprise using TCP/IP,
HTTP,
and other Internet protocols. Intranets may include connections
through gateway computers to the Internet using firewall servers for
security.
Instance
See »XML
instance«
IP
Internet
Protocol, protocol in the TCP/IP internet layer for communication
between nets and their hosts. An IP-address uniquely identifies each
network and each of its hosts on the internet. Addresses consist of
four bytes that can be represented by four integers (0 to 255)
seperated by dots, e.g. "157.189.162.75". Dependent on the address'
class and a subnet mask, a specific number of bits identify the net
or subnet and the rest a PC's address within this
net/subnet.
ISAPI
Internet Information Server API, API
supported by the MS's Internet Information Server (IIS).
ISO =
International Organization for Standardization
ISO was founded in
1946. It is an international federation of national standards
organizations from over 100 countries. ISO is a word, not an
abbreviation, derived from the Greek isos, "equal", found in terms
such as "isometric" and "isonomy". It was created in an attempt to
avoid creating even more abbreviations for the members' national
languages (e.g. IOS in English or OIN in French for "Organisation
internationale de normalisation").
Jade
James DSSSL Engine, C++ implementation
of the DSSSL
stylesheet language by James Clark for Win32 and UNIX platforms,
current version is 1.2. Jade supports the backends RTF, XML, Fot
(=Flow Object Tree), TeX, MIF (a MacIntosh-format), and SGML.
JAR
Java
Archive, file format, basically a ZIP format to contain Java
classes and optionally a manifest file to describe the classes, e.g.
whether they are JavaBeans.
JAR files are created, viewed, and updated and single classes are
extracted using the Java Archive Tool (call: jar). JAR files are
especially useful when called from applets
since the client has less stuff to download when the applet is
run.
Java
Object
oriented programming language, Java classes compile into
Java-bytecode. This code can be executed on any platform that
implements the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
Executable Java-objects are either applets
or applications. Java supports multithreading.
Java
Applet
A component written in Java,
that can be downloaded from a server via an intra- or internet and
executed on a client. The applet runs in a sandbox, e.g. the
security settings only allow the applet to access data located on
the server the applet is downloaded from. Most browsers contain a
Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and
are thus capable of running applets.
JavaBeans
Java
component model. Beans, i.e. reusable Java components with a
standardized interface, can be created using the Bean Development
Kit (BDK).
JavaScript
Netscape's object oriented
scripting language, usable from within HTML
pages. Microsoft's version of JavaScript is JScript.
JAXP
A
freeware Java package by Sun
providing core XML
capabilities including an XML parser with optional validation (Project
X) and an in-memory object model tree that supports the W3C's DOM Level
1 recommendation.
- The JAXP Product
Page, you have to register as a JDC (= Java Development
Connection) member to enter.
JDBC
Java
Database Connectivity, standardized DB interface for Java.
This technology allows to write an application once, and use it with
any SQL database that has a JDBC-driver.
JDK
Java
Developers Kit, toolset by Sun (e.g.
the "javac" compiler) for Java
development, containing lots of Java class libraries as e.g. Swing.
The current version is JDK1.2.
JFC
Java
Foundation Classes, an other name for Swing.
JScript
Microsoft's script language for
HTML
pages. It adheres to the ECMAScript standard and is Microsoft's
equivalent to Netscape's JavaScript.
JVM
Java
Virtual Machine, Java
bytecode interpreter, exists on different platforms, e.g. Windows
NT, AS400, ...
Koala
XML
project by Bull France, the most interesting part is KOML, a
Java
serialisation using XML, Koala Project Homepage.
KOML
Koala
Object Markup Language, a method for serialisation and
deserialisation of Java-objects in XML. Homepage.
Lark
Nonvalidating XML
parser by Tim Bray in Java. An Introduction to XML
Processing with Lark and Larval.
LotusXSL
IBM's XSL
processor in Java
usable from the command line or from wrapper applets. 01/12/2000 :
LotusXSL has been updated to be a wrapper for the latest version of
Xalan.
LotusXSL on
IBM Alphaworks.
Lynx
A freeware text browser for the web.
The Lynx Homepage.
Markup
Markup refers to the sequence of
characters or other symbols that you insert at certain places in a
text or word processing file to indicate how the file should look
when it is printed or displayed or to describe the document's
logical structure. The markup indicators are often called "tags."
Markup
/DQJXDJH
Can also be called »Tagging Language«
Marshalling
Marshalling is the
process of transforming structured information to an internal format
in order to transmit it between two processes.
MathML
Mathematical Formula Markup
Language, XML DTD for
mathematical formular.
MCF
Meta
Content Framework: A draft, originally developed by Apple, which has
been taken over by Netscape. It describes meta data. RDF is the
current draft today.
Memex
Vannevar Bush™s fictitious hypertext
system which he describes in his article from 1945 »As we may
think«.
metalanguage
Metalanguage is a
definition or description of language.
Mime
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions,
the MIME-type specifies a mail's type, e.g. text, application,
audio, etc.
Mixed
Content
If child elements
can also exist in addition to character data in an element, one
speaks of mixed content. In this case, in the sequence of optional
elements, the character data has to appear first.
E.g.
<!ELEMENT p (#PCDATA|strong|em)*>.
MOM - Message Oriented
Middleware
Message Oriented Middleware (based on
asynchronous working message queuing concepts) are software products
which can be used for the communication based on messages sent
between client and server functionality.
Mozilla
An
open-source project starting from the source of the Netscape
Navigator, Netscape's
web-browser. Netscape is a major contributor to the Mozilla code. At
the same time, Netscape uses the Mozilla code as the basis of its
Netscape 6 product. Mozilla supports XML via a
DOM
API and CSS
stylesheets. XSL
support is planned.
MSL
Model
Schema Language, an initiative by members of the W3C's XML
Schema Working Group, to provide a formal model for the XML
Schema language.
- The message New
MSL Draft by Jonathan Robie, published 15.09.2000 on a W3C
mailing list.
MSXML
Validating XML
parser and XSLT
processor by Microsoft, written in Java
that ships with IE5. For a
conformant XSLT processor upgrade to MSXML3, a COM
Object that replaces the former non-conformant Java
processor.
namespaces
W3C activity concerning XML to
enable documents to use names specified in foreign DTDs. A
namespace declaration within an XML document points to a namespace
'ns' via a URI. Thus
the names contained in this namespace are available in the form
'ns:name' within a specific part of the document's tree. A draft can
be found under: http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-xml-names
.
NDATA
Data
Content Notation, Part of an SGML or
XML
entity declaration. The NDATA keyword maps an entity to a notation.
This tells the parser not to parse this entity but to hand it over
to the program that is specified in the notation
declaration.
Netscape Communicator
Netscape's
suite of internet tools containing, among others, the Netscape
Navigator, and email, calendar, and management features. Homepage.
Netscape
Navigator
(Former name Mozilla)
Netscape's
web-browser, supporting Java-Applets
with version 2.0., now part of the Netscape
Communicator.
Non-validating
processor
XML-Parser
which only reads the document instance but not the DTD
referenced. It checks if the instance
is »well-formed« (see also»validating
processor« and »well-formed«).
notation
SGML or
XML
declaration, that gives a name to a data format for use in entity
and attribute
declarations, see also keyword NDATA.
Notes ( http://www.w3.org/TR/#Notes
)
Publications in form of a dated public record of an idea,
comment, or document. A note does not represent a W3C
agreement to continue the work referenced in the note.
OASIS
Organisation for the Advancement of
Structured Information Standards, among others the owner of DocBook.
OMG = Object
Management Group
The OMG was formed in 1989 by a group of
vendors with the aim of creating a standard architecture for
distributed objects in networks. The architecture that resulted is
the Common Object Request Broker architecture (CORBA).
OSI Communication Layer
Model
The OSI (Open System Interconnection) reference
model is defined in ISO 7498 and describes a communication standard
as to how computers should communicate in a network.
Out-of-line
Link
Link element not containing the source(s) of
referenced objects.
Parameter
Entity
Entity which can only exist in a DTD in
contrast to the »external
entity«. It is prefaced and referenced with a percent symbol. An
example for the use is the integration of character set files:
:
<!ENTITY % HTMLxxx "-//W3C//DTD ...//EN">
parser
see
XML
parser
PE
parameter
entity, a modul used within an SGML or
XML DTD,
using a reference of the form %modul-name;.
Perl
Scripting
language
PI
processing
instruction, Part of an SGML or
XML
document, in the form <? ... >. PIs are instructions for
applications, processing the document, e.g. editors.
Project
X
Sun's
freeware XML
compiler written in Java.
Validation is optional. Project X is part of Sun's JAXP,
i.e. Java API for XML Parsing.
prolog
Part
of an SGML- or
XML-document,
e.g. "<?xml version="1.0"?>" (for XML). An other optional part
of the prolog is the document type declaration, i.e. a set of local
definitions or a reference to a DTD. In
addition, a prolog may contain processing instructions and
comments.
Proposed Recommendations (
http://www.w3.org/TR/#PR
)
Publications representing consensus within the developing group
and which have been proposed by the director to be discussed in the
consultative committee.
Public
Identifier
String which declares a publicly available DTD or entity
in a DOCTYPE-Directive (Document Type Declaration). Example: PUBLIC
"-//W3C//ENTITIES Full Latin 1//EN//HTML". The string is followed by
a name by which the source can be reached. If it is a local DTD, the
»System
Identifier« which is followed by the name of the local
file has to be used: <!DOCTYPE document-root SYSTEM
"name.dtd">.
PURL
Persistent Uniform Resource Locator, a
relative address of an internet resource. A PURL may appear anywhere
a URL
is expected. PURLs point towards an address table, where they are
mapped to URLs.
Python
Programming language, useful for
processing SGML and
XML
documents. Fourthought
offers a set of Python XML tools called 4Suite.
QuickSilver
XML
document builder by BroadVision
contained in their XML content management system BladeRunner.
Quilt
An XML Query Language suggested March
2000 to the W3C's XML
Query Working Group by (among others) Jonathan Robie.
- The Proposal,
Quilt: an XML Query Language on the W3C's XML Query WG
page,
Recommendations ( http://www.w3.org/TR/#Recommendations
)
Publications representing consensus with the W3C and
possessing the certification of the director. The W3C considers the
ideas or technologies specified by the recommendation as the basis
for a wide-spread development and support of the W3C mission
( http://www.w3.org/Consortium/#mission
).
RDF
Resource
Description Framework, an XML
application, providing a mechanism to exchange metadata. RDF has yet
been implemented for example in the Mozilla-based
Netscape
6 preview release 1 and in FourThought's
4Suite
as 4RDF.
RELAX
Regular
Language for XML, an XML
schema proposal by Murata Makoto that uses XML instance syntax,
adopts the datatypes developed by the W3C Schema WG, and is namespace-aware.
RELAX is modular with a core module based on a single namespace. It
is a DTD
equivalent covering the original, minimalist goals for the W3C
schema effort, but is much smaller (and thus simpler) thanXML
Schema.
RosettaNet
An organization set up by
leading information technology companies to define and implement a
common set of standards for e-business,
supporting processes between supply chain partners. RosettaNet Home.
RTFtoHTML
A tool converting RTF to HTML.
RTFtoHTML Homepage.
RXP
A
validating namespace-aware
XML
parser in C by Richard Tobin. Homepage.
Sablotron
XSLT
processor in C from gingerall,
i.e. Ginger Alliance Ltd. also available as a Perl
package. Sablotron works on top of James Clark's expat.
Current version is 0.42.
SAX = Simple API
for XML
SAX
is an application program interface that allows a programmer to
interpret a web file that uses XML.
SAXON
A Java
class library for processing of XML
documents on top of SAX and
DOM
including an XSL
processor. The SAXON Homepage.
Schema
Adjuncts
XML
document that contains additional, application-specific data
relative to a particular schema.
Schematron
A toolkit developed by Rick
Jeliffe that uses XPath
to do validation based on finding tree patterns in the parsed
document.
- The Schematron Homepage
on the ASCC (ACADEMICA Sinica Computing Centre) site,
Scheme
Programming language: a /LVS dialect.
»DSSSL«,
the style language for SGML is
a 6FKHPH dialect.
Servlet
A
Java application that, different from applets,
runs on the server and generates HTML-pages that are sent to the
client. Servlets can run on browsers that are not Java-enabled.
SGML
Standard
Generalized Markup Language, Standard for documents that defines a
document as an instance of a type, i.e. a DTD. The
document's contents are identified by using semantic tags according
to the DTD. In 1986, SGML was adopted as an ISO standard. It has
been the predecessor of XML.
SGML Document
Interchange Format (SDIF)
[GOLD90] defines it the
following way: »A data structure enabling the combination of a main
document and all its related documents which can be saved within
several entities for the purpose of data exchange into a single data
stream so that the receiver can reconstruct the individual entities.
« Or simply: SDIF is a transport format for documents, instances,
entities,
etc. The definition can be found in ISO 9069 in ASN.1-Form.
SMIL
Synchronized Multimedia Integration
Language, a W3C
standard that uses XML to
describe synchronized multimedia presentations.
SML
Simple
Markup Language, an approach to simplify XML to
make life easier for XML-consuming devices. Simplification is
achieved by avoiding a number of XML features e.g. attributes and PIs.
SMTP
Simple
Message Transport Protocol, protocol for Email.
socket
Combination of an IP-address and a
port-number, that uniquely identifies a service on the internet. A
pair of sockets, sender and receiver, uniquely identifies a network
connection in TCP.
SOAP
Simple
Object Access Protocol, a method invented by Microsoft to use RPC over
the internet via HTTP
calls. SOAP is now published as an W3C Note
and implemented, among others, as part of the Apache
XML Project.
SoftQuad
Vendor for HTML, SGML,
and XML
tools, e.g. the HTML editor HoTMetal PRO and its SGML/XML successor
XMetaL.
Homepage.
SOSOFO
Specification of a Sequence of Flow
Objects: SOSOFOs are generally non-empty sequences of objects.
DSSSL
or XSL
generate them within the processing of XML/SGML
documents. The empty SOSOFO also exists: empty-sosofo.
SOX
Schema for
Object-oriented XML, schema proposal for XML,
proposed to the W3C in
september 1998.
Spinnaker
A project to create a next
generation Apache
XML
parser in Java
using e.g. Xerces
experience.
SQL = Structured
Query Language
SQL is a standard interactive and programming
language for getting information from and updating a database.
Although SQL is both an ANSI and an ISO standard, many database
products support SQL with proprietary extensions to the standard
language.
SSL = Secure
Sockets Layer
SSL is a program layer created by Netscape for
managing the security of message transmissions in a network.
Netscape has offered SSL as a proposed standard protocol to the
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and
the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as a standard security
approach for Web browsers and servers.
Start
Tag
First part of the marker of a non-empty element;
it consists of <, > and the element name plus possible
attributes, e.g. <element>.
Style
Rule
Definition of a style default for certain elements
in XSL; can
be used independently of elements as »named style rule«.
Stylesheet
A programm written in a
stylesheet language for converting and/or presenting HTML, SGML, or
XML
documents. Stylesheet languages are e.g. CSS for
HTML (and CSS2 for
XML too), XSL for
XML and FOSI and
DSSSL
for both SGML and XML.
SVG = Scalable
Vector Graphics
Scalable Vector Graphics, a language for
describing two-dimensional vector and mixed vector/raster graphics
in XML. SVG
graphic types include text and XSLT can
transform XML documents into SVG output. Thus SVG is a possible
replacement for XSL
FO. SVG tools are provided by IBM, CSIRO and Adobe.
Swing
Sun's
GUI-toolkit for Java,
extending AWT.
SXP
Silfide XML
Parser, an XML
parser written in Java.
SXP is part of XSilfide, a client/server based environment for
distributing language ressources based on XML. XSilfide is a product
of the Silfide
project. The Silfide Project.
tag
A tag is a
generic term for a language element descriptor. The set of tags for
a document or other unit of information is sometimes referred to as
markup, a term that dates to pre-computer days when writers and copy
editors marked up document elements with copy editing symbols or
shorthand. Part of the marking of an element; the name of the
element enclosed is in »<« (start) and »>« or »/>« (end),
e.g. <element> and </element>.
Tamino
XML Platform
Software AG's XML Platform for Electronic
Business. The name is an acronym for T ransaction
A rchitecture for
M anagement of IN ternet O bjects. Software AG tools contained in
the Tamino XML Platform are X-Node, X-Studio and X-Bridge. These
enable XML storage (X-Machine), wrapping legacy data (X-Node),
building applications (X-Studio), and exchange across platforms
(X-Bridge). To complete this set, Tamino includes XML tools provided
by partners, e.g. extensibility's
XML
Authority to deal with different types of XML Schemata (DTDs, XML
Schema, Tamino Schema, etc.), two XML editors, i.e. SoftQuad's
XMetaL
and extensibility's XML
Instance, eXcelon
Stylus (an XSLT
editor), and Breeze
XML Studio by Breeze Factor LLC. a tool to bind XML to JavaBeans.
The core of the platform, Tamino XML Database, is an information
server that stores and exchanges information using the XML
format. Using XML as a meta-format, Tamino allows the composition of
information from data that may originate from different storage
systems. Exploiting XML's capability of describing data that may
consist of different types (for example, relational data, graphics,
sound, video or plain text), Tamino can store information as
"Internet objects". Tamino Product Homepage.
TCP
Transmission Control Protocol, a protocol
from the TCP/IP-transport
layer. TCP is reliable, i.e. each package is acknoledged. It
furthermore is connection-oriented, i.e. the connection is
established via handshake, before any data is transmitted. TCP
serves for communication between applications that are identified by
their port-numbers upon a host.
TCP/IP
Transmission Control Protocol /
Internet Protocol, a bundle of network protocols, e.g. the Internet
Protocol IP, the
Transport Protocol TCP and
the Application Protocols TELNET and FTP.
TEI
»Text
Encoding Initiative«: In the project™s guidelines, markups
for all kinds of texts were developed, including tables, graphics,
and hyperlinks
(see http://www.uic.edu/orgs/tei/
).
Topic
Maps
An XML DTD incl.
semantics that is designed to link XML resources to enable
navigation using topics. Topic Maps uses XLink
to connect resources. TOPIC MAPS.com,
Traverse
Access to resources on one or
more links.
UDDI
Universal
Description, Discovery, and Integration, a standard for a
platform-independent, open framework for describing services on the
Internet,
suggested by, among others, IBM, Ariba and Microsoft, September 6,
2000. UDDI is intended mainly for B2B
enhancement and is based on the W3C's XML
standard and, especially on SOAP.
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