Index Data  >  Technologies  >  XML

At the simplest level, XML is merely a convention for marking up text or data. XML, or other formats that look like it (similarly derived from SGML) have been used for that purpose for decades.

However, as XML matures as a standard -- indeed, as a family of standards, it is turning out to be something much more interesting. When you combine the XML language itself (enriched with constructs like namespaces to support rich, complex applications) with data modeling languages like XML/Schema, abstract data manipulation APIs like DOM (Document Object Model), and data access languages like Xpath, XSLT, and XQuery, then the result is a remarkably powerful environment for working with, and exchanging, structured data of all sorts.

Granted, some of these standards are still maturing, and support for them is still evolving in some development environment, but already they are simplifying application development and improving information exchange in a great number of applications.

At Index Data, XML is close to the core of many of our activities.

In the area of networked information searching, we have been very active participants in the quest for XML usage: Starting with improving XML support in the ANSI/NISO Z39.50 standard, and ending with the development of whole new information retrieval technologies, maximizing the use of XML tools and technologies (see ZiNG).