XML, Extensible Markup Language Version 1.0. is a new language for the encoding of structured data on the Web. XML is a simple, very flexible text format derived from SGML (ISO 8879). XML was originally designed to meet the challenges of large-scale electronic publishing. Today XML is also playing an increasingly important role in the exchange of a wide variety of data on the Web.
XML was designed to:
- Enable internationalized media-independent electronic publishing
- Allow industries to define platform-independent protocols for the exchange of data, especially the data of electronic commerce
- Deliver information to user agents in a form that allows automatic processing after receipt
- Make it easier to develop software to handle specialized information distributed over the Web
- Make it easy for people to process data using inexpensive software
- Allow people to display information the way they want it, under stylesheet control
- Make it easier to provide metadata -- data about information -- that will help people find information and help information producers and consumers find each other