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Matthew Browning wrote: >> I need some help with XML here but none of this lot are any good. I reckon I might be able to blag a course: does anyone know of anything in/around Devon? (Tried GoogleUK search, the Uni, local colleges, WOM already) Any suggestions welcomed. MB. << I'm willing to give you all the help you need. I run XML and XSLT and I'm just waiting for someone to work out how to implement XFile and XPath in a 2D browser and I'll have a crack at that too. As for Simon's stance of 'Duh, what's it for' :-) take a look at codehelp you luggard! The CodeHelp site runs in XML when you view the site with the only XSLT capable browser available at present: Internet Explorer 5. (IE6 I haven't tried yet and MS might have changed the implementation of XSLT as it was still a 'work in progress' when I wrote the XSLT). I use XML for one simple reason: file size. I reduced the size of the site by 50% by writing in XML. I reduced it a further 20% using PHP to export XML or XHTML, but that's another story. XML is simply a method of separating the formatting from the data within a HTML page. It has many many more uses too, including data mining, flat file data storage, descriptive storage, data export media, and WML. (Is that a 'use' or a sideline!!) The CodeHelp site has a 7 page tutorial on using XML and XSLT to create a web site from a set of consistent HTML pages - the final format of the pages must be the same, much like the D&CLUG site - the template is enforced with each page. I have also written an XSLT glossary, but there's more work to do there. XML is the source of the WML syntax, so using WML/WAP is also a good way of learning XML syntax. The basics are easy: <p></P> is illegal because p != P. <br> is illegal because it hasn't been closed, either use <br></br> (which may confuse browsers) or use <br />. <ul><li>Item One</ul> is illegal because <li> hasn't been closed. <center><h1>Title</center>More Title</h1> is illegal because the </h1> must come within the <center></center> tag as it was started after <center> (nesting rules are enforced by XML but not always by HTML.) The final stage is XHTML which is a kind of half way between XML and HTML. XHTML is stricter than HTML but can be rendered by most, if not all, browsers. I use XHTML for nearly all 'HTML' pages on the codehelp site because I wrote the file in XML and used XSLT to export a XHTML page. That way I write only 20 lines of XML o get a 150 line HTML page that is absolutely spot on perfect. Everytime. End of typos. All the queries you have on XML I'll take a shot at, email me off list. (Just make sure you read the tutorial first or I'll tell you off.) :-)) Neil Williams ========= http://www.codehelp.co.uk mail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (bit miffed that google didn't raise a link to www.codehelp.co.uk/html/first.html !!!) -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG Mail majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe list" in the message body to unsubscribe.