> Bosak says (in his paper "XML, Java, and the future of the Web")
> that "its utility ultimately lies in the fact that a
> computation-intensive process, that would otherwise entail an
> enormous, extended resource hit on the server has been changed into
> a brief interaction with the server followed by an extended
> interaction with the user's own Web client". I can't see how this
> is directly due to XML, would the same process not be possible
> using a Java applet and data written in *any* industry-specific
> representation language? Is there any specific benefit associated
> with using XML to implement this language?
One advantage is the fact that XML has a concept of both physical
(entity) and logical (element) structure. You can put together a
document from many different sources anywhere on the Internet (or any
other network), and produce an entirely different logical structure
for use by your application. For example, here's a document that gets
its first chapter from a hypothetical server in Canada, its second,
from a server at an American university, and the second paragraph of
its third chapter, from a server in Finland (of course, if you're
using a Java applet, your web browser must allow applets to make
TCP/IP connections to multiple hosts):
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE book SYSTEM "book.dtd" [
<!ENTITY chap01 SYSTEM
"http://xmlserver.nowhere.ca/cgi-bin/get-chap?id=1">
<!ENTITY chap02 SYSTEM
"ftp://cow.college.edu/pub/chapters/chapter-02.xml">
<!ENTITY para01 SYSTEM
"http://santas.village.fi/text/english/somepara.xml">
]>
<book>
<title>My Book</title>
<!-- first chapter -->
&chap01;
<!-- second chapter -->
&chap02;
<!-- third chapter -->
<chapter>
<title>This is the third chapter</title>
<para>First paragraph.</para>
¶01;
<para>Third paragraph.</para>
</chapter>
</book>
Another advantage is the fact that many people are using it. You
could invent a different syntax that did the same thing, but why
bother, especially when there's already lots of free and commercial
software supporting XML.
A final advantage is that XML is not language-, software-, or
vendor-specific; instead, it's based on an International Standard, ISO
8879, that has been in widespread enterprise use for over a decade.
All the best,
David
--
David Megginson ak117@freenet.carleton.ca
Microstar Software Ltd. dmeggins@microstar.com
http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/dmeggins/
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