XML: a technical introduction

This report aims at providing a technical introduction to the eXtensible Markup Language, known as XML. This language has been developed by W3C, the World Wide Web Consortium in order to offer an effective mechanism for managing structured data on the Web, thus overcoming the limits of HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). We examine the components of the language and the way in which it differs with HTML. Examples are given of current possible uses and suggestion are made for future applications. We also briefly outline some of the new standards that are emerged, or now emering with respect to XML