XML eh?

[dethfire]

Does anyone else find learning XML hard becuase of how uninteresting it is? lol, i really try, but find myself not caring at all about XML. I know it's the future and neccessary to learn for a web developer, but right now I have no use for it and find it's hard to learn because it's so bland. It's not like javascript where neat things happen and I can see results. Know what I mean?

[jbradley]

Yes, it absolutely must be the most boring thing on Earth! Ah well, if you don't suffer through it, it probably isn't worth it anyway. Good luck!

Jason

[redemption]

Originally posted by dethfire
Does anyone else find learning XML hard becuase of how uninteresting it is?

i never thought of that... come to think about it that is why it's so hard to pick up

[Andrew-J2000]

Well you obviously havent gotten really into xml to undertstand it, (neither have I yet). The reason you find it bland is because you havent learnt the various parts that build up xml. xml alone is bland which is true. As it basically stores data.

Have you leant xsl yet?

Heres an example of xpaths

http://www.zvon.org/xxl/XPathTutoria.../example1.html

with xml and using other parts of it you may not need a server side language to interpret pages. As you can sort data in the page.

The only problem is that browser support is limited.

[redemption]

i had a hard time reading on XSLT, XPath, XPointer, etc. too because i found them rather dry... XForms are one thing that i found interesting though but they've yet to reach a full spec at W3 yet...

[Andrew-J2000]

Theres so much to learn thats the problem, what with things like svg etc. Theres so much potential with xml, theres no doubt it's the future of web design, i'm definately going to get into xml more deeply, the only thing is learning the xml dom, as vbscript get's involved a bit for certain thigs. But the problem when learning xml, things are all crosslinked, you cannot learn one thing without having to learn another part of xml.

I havent gotten onto x-forms, but i know that it must have some good functionality in it, what with datafld's, but with xsl you can control the structure of documents, sort and calculate/count with it. But it all needs to be supported by browsers, which a lot of it is

[MarcusJT]

Although admittedly not the most fascinating thing on the planet, I already find the combination of XML & XSL an incredibly powerful tool for efficiently generating content, such as templated HTML content, tree views, dropdown menus, tables, and a million other things.

Being able to deliver different output to different clients or for different uses all from the same data and simply by specifying a different XSL file is also pretty kewl!


M@rco

[Owen]

I bought an O'Reilly book on XML... it's now acting as my monitor stand!

XML is useful though. I found a good way to learn was using the tellme service. You write XML (VoiceXML) applications that interact w/ users over a telephone ... very fun, free, and easy.

Owen

[Andrew-J2000]

XML is useful though. I found a good way to learn was using the tellme service. You write XML (VoiceXML) applications that interact w/ users over a telephone ... very fun, free, and easy.

have you got an example?

[Owen]

Call 1-800-555-TELL, say extensions, say 45667. (or type 1-45667.) You can then ask to hear a joke (the same as www.pbbt.com/funnystuff/today.shtml), a random quote, or to learn about pbbt.com. This is all implemented in 30-40 lines of code. I can't show you the code right now, but it essentially is a plain VoiceXML file which downloads the current joke from a text file and then reads it to you. It also has interactive prompting, etc. There's lots of documentation at http://studio.tellme.com/

Owen

PS> Ask to play blackjack at the main menu. It's a hoot! Don't forget to ask to switch dealers.

[edlaagn]

I'm finding learning XML and XSL soooo boring at the moment and as a result I'm getting nowhere.

Also, I'm a designer, not a programmer, I don't know any other languages (unless you count HTML). I'm getting stuck on all the terminology such as 'templates', 'node', 'children', 'parent', etc etc.

Does anyone know if there are any REALLY basic designer-friendly XSL tutorials or books out there?

/Ange

[Andrew-J2000]

yup, go here, http://www.zvon.org/index.php?nav_id=tutorials

they have loads of demos which you can experiment on have a go, it's quite useful

[oceansky]

I eventually know that I am a good boy who are working hard. You know ........ I have just finished the book, "essential XML for web professionals". What a terrible experience!!!

The author just keeps pushing terms and definations in my head, now I am not sure what I have learnt.

I don't know how to get my foot wet???? How should I start? Any suggestion?

[ThomasAesir]

M$'s site http://msdn.microsoft.com/xml/ has a lot of good articles and examples of XML.

From what I gather, XSL isn't supported by Netscape yet(version 7?) but formatting via CSS is (back to 4.72 in Netscape I think).

Is anyone actually using XML and XSL on any of their sites?

[Andrew-J2000]

yup, i will be/have