XML Basics for Text Processing

(3-day hands-on introduction to XML)

There are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of XML specifications, standards, applications, and languages. All are based on the W3C’s XML specification, and understanding any of them requires knowing the basics of XML:

• Creating an XML document instance
• Rules for XML well-formedness
• Distinction between well-formed and valid documents
• Reading and using a Document Type Definition (DTD)
• Writing a DTD
  • Internal and external subsets
  • Elements and attributes
  • Entities (parameter, general, internal and external, parsed and unparsed)
  • Notations
• Parsing/Validating a DTD and XML document
• Other XML schemas (W3C XML Schema and RELAX NG)
• Rules-based validation (Schematron)

By the end of the class, participants will have written a DTD and valid XML document, corrected well-formedness and validity errors, and have converted “tag-soup” HTML into well-formed and then valid XML. They will understand the differences between XML DTDs, the W3C XML Schema, and RELAX NG (although none of the schema languages are covered in depth).

Intended for people who have an interest in textual documents, such as writers, editors, and programmers with HTML or typesetting experience, this class focuses on use of XML with text. Typesetters, programmers, managers, subject-matter experts, and copy-editors have all taken this class successfully.

This hands-on class can be taught on PC or Macintosh.

Prerequisites: Participants need to know how to create and manipulate files, the basics of text editing, and how to create documents for some presentation application (e.g., QuarkXPress, Ventura Publisher, PageMaker, FrameMaker, or an HTML browser).