This is W3C activity statement for SGML, XML, and Structured Document Interchange. It is one of the Architecture Domain activities. (See also the XML Overview for resources such as news, events, and history, background, and technical specifications.) Jon Bosak, SGML WG chairman
Dan Connolly, SGML activity contact
Last revised $Date: 2000/06/26 13:49:43 $
created January 1996
Most documents on the Web are stored and transmitted in HTML. HTML is a simple language well-suited for hypertext, multimedia, and the display of small and reasonably simple documents. HTML is based on SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language), an ISO standard system for defining and using document formats.
SGML makes it possible to define your own formats for your own documents, to handle large and complex documents, and to manage large information repositories. Allowing generic SGML in Web documents would facilitate large-scale commercial Web publishing and make it much easier to apply advanced technologies such as Java to Web documents on the user's desktop. However, the full SGML specification is very expensive to implement and goes beyond the needs of the great majority of Web users.
The XML activity is dedicated to bringing the key benefits of generic SGML to the Web in a manner that is easy to implement and understand while remaining fully compliant with the ISO standard.
The goal of the activity is to enable an ISO-compliant subset of SGML, the Extensible Markup Lanaguage (XML), to be served, received, and processed on the Web. As in the case of HTML, the implementation of XML on the Web will require attention not just to structure and content, but also to the standardization of linking and display functions. Since a key design feature of XML is its clear separation of syntax from other processing behaviors, the explicit standardization of the most important of those behaviors (linking and stylesheets) is a necessary part of the XML activity in order to ensure the vendor- and platform-neutral interoperation of XML documents. As in the case of XML syntax, the standardization of XML linking and stylesheets takes place within the context of existing international text processing standards.
Web servers and clients conforming to the relevant standards must be able to exchange generic XML documents in a transparent manner. In particular:
The specific deliverables of the SGML WG are being developed in three phases, as follows:
A paper titled "XML, Java, and the Future of the Web" gives one view of the kind of advanced Web applications made possible by XML; this paper is also available in a compressed PostScript version that demonstrates the application of DSSSL.
Accomplishments of this activity so far include:
The SGML ERB and WG are currently completing Phases I and II of the XML activity described above.
Requirements for certain enhancements to XML syntax (structured attributes, alternative schemas, multiple name spaces) requested by other W3C activities are under currently under review, and these features may become part of the XML 1.0 working draft before it is submitted for approval as a W3C recommendation.
On July 1, 1997, the group currently known as the W3C SGML Editorial Review Board will become known as the W3C XML Working Group and will begin working under the process rules currently governing the activities of W3C working groups. On the same date, the group currently known as the W3C SGML Working Group will become known as the W3C XML Interest Group and will begin working under the process rules currently governing the activities of W3C interest groups.
Related efforts are currently taking place outside the W3C: