XML: syntax

The current craze for multimedia technologies is a logical consequence of the digital invasion of all information sectors. This boom is reflected in the constant evolution of HMIs towards greater user-friendliness, transparency and ease of use. Multimedia professions are now appearing in many fields. In information and communication, of course, but also in leisure (encyclopedias, games, virtual tours, etc.), documentation (access to document content, virtual libraries, information search assistance, etc.), services and commerce (e-catalogues, business-to-business communication, etc.), and training (new educational technologies, self-training, e-learning, etc.).

In today's fast-moving world of Web-based information exchange, the need for reliable, powerful formats for hypermedia documents is growing. The XML language (already presented by François Chahuneau [TI H 7 148 ]) ref [1] is a metalanguage that makes it possible both to define document formats and to create documents respecting these formats. In this way, it provides a highly satisfactory solution to the Web community's expectations for data exchange formats. The aim of this article is to review the syntactical elements of the XML language, the DTD document model and the basic XPath and XSLT tools for processing and formatting such documents.