XML

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Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. Many application programming interfaces (APIs) have been developed to aid software developers with processing XML data (Source: WikiPedia)

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
XML (noun)
a markup language with use and design similar to HTML but employing tags that indicate the logical structure in addition to the display specifications of the coded data
XML (Wikipedia)
XML (standard)
Extensible Markup Language
Extensible Markup Language (XML) logo.svg
StatusPublished, W3C Recommendation
Year started1996; 25 years ago (1996)
First publishedFebruary 10, 1998; 23 years ago (1998-02-10) (as a W3C Recommendation)
Latest version1.1 (Second Edition)
September 29, 2006; 14 years ago (2006-09-29)
OrganizationWorld Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
Editors
Base standardsSGML
Related standardsXML Schema
DomainData serialization
AbbreviationXML
Websitewww.w3.org/xml
XML (file format)
Filename extension
.xml
Internet media type
  • application/xml
  • text/xml
Uniform Type Identifier (UTI)public.xml
UTI conformationpublic.text
Magic number<?xml
Developed byWorld Wide Web Consortium
Type of formatMarkup language
Extended fromSGML
Extended to
Standard
Open format?Yes

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. The World Wide Web Consortium's XML 1.0 Specification of 1998 and several other related specifications—all of them free open standards—define XML.

The design goals of XML emphasize simplicity, generality, and usability across the Internet. It is a textual data format with strong support via Unicode for different human languages. Although the design of XML focuses on documents, the language is widely used for the representation of arbitrary data structures such as those used in web services.

Several schema systems exist to aid in the definition of XML-based languages, while programmers have developed many application programming interfaces (APIs) to aid the processing of XML data.

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