The World Wide Web Consortium released new editions of four core XML specifications on Aug. 16.
The Cambridge, Mass.-based standards body announced the release of the fourth edition of XML (Extensible Markup Language) 1.0 and second editions of Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.1, Namespaces in XML 1.0 and Namespaces in XML 1.1.
W3C officials said these core XML specifications stand as the foundation for W3C-defined technologies for querying, transforming, displaying, encrypting, and optimizing XML.
The new releases includes corrections for “all known errata and clarifications where there was some potential for misunderstanding,” according to a W3C document about the XML updates.
Meanwhile, the W3C is working to continue to improve XML.
W3C officials said that by the end of 2006, there will be new standards for XML Query (XML Query 1.0) and Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT 2.0).
In addition, W3C officials said the organization is revising XML Schema, which is heavily used in SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)-based Web services, and the standards organization is planning additions to XML Query beyond the 1.0 version.
And the W3Cs XML Processing Model Working Group will soon publish the first draft of an XML language for specifying sequences of operations on XML documents, such as transformation, validation, inclusion and decryption, based on existing XML pipeline products and free and open-source designs, the W3C said.
Moreover, as many XML-specific technologies for improving the efficiency of XML storage, transmission and processing have been developed, the W3C has started a working group on Efficient XML Interchange to expand the outreach of XML into further domains that require even greater performance and additional capabilities such as streaming, W3C officials said.
Already XML is widely used throughout the industry. XML is used to exchange information in many areas, in such specifications as VoiceXML, MathML, SVG, RSS, Web3D, RDF/XML, XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform), XUL (XML User Interface Language), SOAP, Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), and Jabber/XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol).
Productivity suites such as Microsoft Office and OpenOffice also use XML; XML is supported in libraries for programming languages such as Java, C#, Python, Perl, and C.