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XML Training: Introductions to the Standards

XML for SGMLers

(half-day or 1-day lecture)

This course teaches people comfortable with the syntax of SGML instances and DTDs the details of XML syntax and the differences between SGML and XML.

Instructors begin with a detailed explanation of the SGML features, functionality, and funkiness that XML excludes, and identify the additional restrictions XML imposes on document and DTD syntax. Following the detailed syntax description, participants work on several examples of SGML to XML conversion. Students learn to recognize changes needed to make SGML document instances into well-formed XML, and how to convert SGML DTDs into XML DTDs. Several approaches for converting SGML DTDs and instances to XML are discussed. Emphasis is on how to identify problem areas, approaches for solving those problems, and the trade-offs involved in selecting an approach.

Course materials include a summary of syntax changes, sample SGML document instances and DTDs, and examples of how those samples can be transformed into XML. (The full-day version of the course offers more extensive examples, especially of DTD conversion issues.)

Prerequisites: Participants should understand and preferably have worked with SGML.