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.