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As developers know, the beauty of XML is that it is extensible, even to the point that you can invent new elements and attributes as you write XML documents. Then, however, you need to define your changes so that applications will be able to make sense of them and this is where XML schema languages come into play. RELAX NG (pronounced relaxing), the Regular Language Description for XML Core—New Generation is quickly gaining momentum as an alternative to other schema languages. Designed to solve a variety of common problems raised in the creation and sharing of XML vocabularies, RELAX NG is less complex than The W3C's XML Schema Recommendation and much more powerful and flexible than DTDs.RELAX NG is a grammar-based schema language that's both easy to learn for schema creators and easy to implement for software developers In RELAX NG, developers are introduced to this unique language and will learn a no-nonsense method for creating XML schemas. This book offers a clear-cut explanation of RELAX NG that enables intermediate and advanced XML developers to focus on XML document structures and content rather than battle the intricacies of yet another convoluted standard.RELAX NG covers the following topics in depth:
Foreword by James Clark
Foreword by Murata Makoto
Preface
Tutorial
Chapter 1: What RELAX NG Offers
Chapter 2: Simple Foundations Are Beautiful
Chapter 3: First Schema
Chapter 4: Introducing the Compact Syntax
Chapter 5: Flattening the First Schema
Chapter 6: More Complex Patterns
Chapter 7: Constraining Text Values
Chapter 8: Datatype Libraries
Chapter 9: Using Regular Expressions to Specify Simple Datatypes
Chapter 10: Creating Building Blocks
Chapter 11: Namespaces
Chapter 12: Writing Extensible Schemas
Chapter 13: Annotating Schemas
Chapter 14: Generating RELAX NG Schemas
Chapter 15: Simplification and Restrictions
Chapter 16: Determinism and Datatype Assignment
Reference
Chapter 17: Element Reference
Chapter 18: Compact Syntax Reference
Chapter 19: Datatype Reference
Appendixes
DSDL
The GNU Free Documentation License
Glossary
Colophon
Anonymous
Posted Tue May 13 00:00:00 EDT 2014
Shrugs. Gtgbabysit AGAIN
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted Tue May 13 00:00:00 EDT 2014
Ok
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted Mon Feb 02 00:00:00 EST 2004
By now, XML is entrenched as the most common and flexible standard for data interchange. There is no real dispute over this. But in the quick uptake of XML, the DTDs rapidly showed their shortcomings. So a more expressive schematic standard was hurriedly put together, under the generic name of XML Schema. But, as van der List points out, some users took issue with the complexity and verbosity of XML Schema. An alternative emerged, Relax NG, which is described in detail here. The author's assessment that Relax is in fact cleaner and simpler to use than XML Schema seems correct. I cannot find technical flaws in his argument. There are two problems, though. XML Schema has greater acceptance. Certainly aided by the very generic and definitive nature of its name. While this may not be quantifiable, it certainly does not help Relax. For example, think of 'Microsoft Windows'. In common parlance, this is elided to 'Windows'. So if you say the latter, in referring to any computer GUI, some might assume you mean the Microsoft version. Very aggravating! There is some of this going on here. The other problem is that both approaches have essentially the same functionality. While there may be some things you can do in Relax that are not possible in the other, this may not be enough. Ditto for the simpler syntax of Relax. Remember IBM's OS/2 versus Microsoft Windows? Most observers with no pony in that race gave an overall technical advantage to OS/2. But it was driven to extinction. A similar fate might befall Relax.
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Overview
As developers know, the beauty of XML is that it is extensible, even to the point that you can invent new elements and attributes as you write XML documents. Then, however, you need to define your changes so that applications will be able to make sense of them and this is where XML schema languages come into play. RELAX NG (pronounced relaxing), the Regular Language Description for XML Core—New Generation is quickly gaining momentum as an alternative to other schema languages. Designed to solve a variety of ...