xml problems- one more time

[Les Mikesell]

Aaron Konstam wrote:

> Well I have looked at four books on XML in every one the statement is
> found that the purpose of XML is allow data used by various applications
> to be stored in a standard format.

It is a standard way to represent name/value sets.  What names
you use and what the values represent need another layer of
standards.

> Now I will admit I began to believe that style sheets were necessary to
> convert XML into pdf files or html files the existence of xmlto on the
> Linux machines lulled me into the illusion that these stylesheets
> existed in conjunction with that command otherwise what would xmlto be
> good for?
> 
> As it is even after reading about xml in 4 books I find the conclusion
> that xml is essentially useless. But I know that is not true, so I
> remain confused.

By itself, the main value of xml is that a standard parser can
extract the names/values in a portable way and if you use a
DTD you can check that the values are valid.   Beyond that
you need some agreement on what the names/values mean.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com