Monday, March 4, 2002

via Apple-Science & Technology: "Moving software from one operating system to another - also known as porting - can be a time-consuming and complex task. However, it has always been easy to port code from one variant of UNIX to another. As a result, bioscience software developers are finding that it is remarkably easy to port applications to Apple"s new UNIX-based Mac OS X." 7:53:25 PM    The Soapbox

Looking for a good resource for answers to your XML questions? If so, editor Peter Flynn provides answers and resources at The XML FAQ Site. Here is a sampling of the insights to be gained: "C.20 Can I use JavaScript, ActiveX, etc in XML files? This will depend on what facilities the browser makers implement. XML is about describing information; scripting languages and languages for embedded functionality are software which enables the information to be manipulated at the user's end, so these languages do not normally have any place in an XML file itself, but in stylesheets like XSL and CSS. XML itself provides a way to define the markup needed to implement scripting languages: as a neutral standard it neither encourages not discourages their use, and does not favour one language over another, so the field is wide open. ¶ Server-side script embedding, like PHP or ASP, can be used with the relevant server to modify the XML code on the fly, as the document is served, just as they can with HTML. Authors should be aware, however, that embedding server-side scripting may mean the file as stored is not valid XML: it only becomes valid when processed and served, so care must be taken when using validating editors or other software to handle or manage such files." 6:15:39 PM    The Soapbox

via XML.COM: "More than twenty acronyms related to Web services came to light during 2001, and in this article I present a quick guide to the protocols and the specifications behind them, including a description of how they relate to each other and where each sits on the Web services landscape." 5:48:14 PM    The Soapbox

via XML.COM: "While quantitative XML data is everywhere, a less common thing to find is examples of effective ways to display such information. Most resources will merely show you how to use XSLT to convert XML data to HTML, which is often not nearly enough when you need to explain complex or large sets of data (see Figure 1). This article discusses the creation of useful graphical presentations of quantitative XML data using XSLT and SVG." 4:41:36 PM    The Soapbox