W3C Announces XML 1.0 Recommendation

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
announced today the release of the XML 1.0 specification as a W3C
Recommendation.

The XML (Extensible Markup Language) 1.0 specification is the first
official recommendation from the W3C regarding XML.

XML is a subset of SGML which is used to define, validate, and share
document formats via the Web. By making a Recommendation, the W3C has
indicated that the specification is stable, contributes to interoperability
on the Web, and has been reviewed and approved by the W3C Membership.

The specification has been under development by the W3C’s XML Working
Group, which is made up of industry leaders including Adobe, ArborText,
DataChannel, Hewlett-Packard, Inso, Isogen, Microsoft, NCSA, Netscape,
SoftQuad, Sun Microsystems, and Fuji Xerox. Additionally, experts in the
field of structured documents and electronic publishing have been
instrumental in its development.

XML was initially designed to be used by larger-scale Web sites for
industry-specific markup, vendor-neutral data exchange, and other
specialized markup. It is preferred over HTML for these uses because of its
vendor independence, user extensibility, validation, and human readability.

For more information on XML, visit the W3C’s XML page.