XML is Sexy

Over the past few weeks I have been delving into the applications of XML and I must say that I have been pleasantly surprised, not only by the level of support out there for XML but also by its versatility and simplicity. This is a technology that, for the best part I have ignored until now, I fear that many other developers do the same unless forced to use it.

My latest article at PHP builder is going to be about XSL transformations. XSL (extensible stylesheet language), enables one to describe one type of XML in terms of another. Carrying out a transformation using the stylesheet effectively means that you can convert from RSS->XHTML, WML->XHTML, XHTML->WML, in fact you can convert any kind of XML to any other kind of XML.

Doing this research has also put a few more aspects of web development in perspective. Mainly XML's most popular application (XHTML) and its partners in crime, CSS and JavaScript. I see now the importance of separating these three technologies when designing web pages and ensuring that any CSS and JavaScript is included in separate files via links.

For XML the future looks bright, it does have a lot of potential, some of which is already being milked (look at the Firefox web browser for example). As web technologies continue to merge with desktop applications and personal Internet connections continue to increase in speed, XML will be creeping in the background, enriching an revitalising our online experience.