XML and RSS

XML stands for Extensible Markup Language. XML is designed to describe data and to focus on what data is. At first i thougt it was the same as HTML but the difference is that XML is designed to describe date and to focus on what data is wheras HTML was designed to display data and to focus on how data looks. I am still trying to understand the difference between these two and there functions but i hope as time passes i will be able to use it more effectively as the term progresses. some othere details i discovered about XML is that tags are not predefined and the user (myself) must define their own tags. XML also uses a Document Type Definition (TDT) or an XML Schema to describe the data. This DTD or XML Schema is designed to be self-descriptive. i know sounds confusing with all those letters but we will figure them all out. just you watch with this space.

Okay moving on the the RSS. RSS or Rich Site Summary is a format for sydicating news and the content of news-like sites, including Wires, personal weblogs and news-orientated community sites. However RSS is not just for news, that's right. Pretty much anything that can be broken down into discrete items can be syndicated via RSS: for example the "recent changes" page of a wikipedia and the revision history of a book. Once information about each item is in RSS format, an RSS-aware program can check the feed for changes and react to the changes in an appropriate way. Wow that sounds complicated but i suppose i see RSS as a link page thats allows anyone to view the latest updates of any page. It's pretty handy and it really means the reader can be lazier. I'm loving that. My first contact with an RSS feed was through my delicious page but you can view it on crazy comet blog. check it out.

Okay the next step of this week was to subscribe to either Google Reader or Bloglines. A tough choice i must admit as i had no idea as to what they were or what magic they did. Upon researching i found using Google reader was easier as i already had an account in google, gmail account. Google reader also looked more user friendly therefore it got bonus points in my eyes.

Sandy