What is XML in Computing?

XML stands for Extensible Markup Language. Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a powerful data storage and transportation tool used widely in the information technology industry for web applications. The power of XML lies in the fact that is software and hardware independent and thus very useful in storing and moving data across different platforms and hardware infrastructures. XML is mostly used to transfer and store data between different application on the web. While Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) is used to display data, XML is used to store and transport data on the web. XML serves much like a common language understood by all applications.

The World Wide Consortium (W3C) developed XML as a tool for "the representation, discovery and exchange of structured data" (Marshall, Matthews & O'Neill, 2000, p. 1). HTML is known to be weak in these areas. According to Marshall, Matthews and O'Neill, XML is very much structural with no standards defining its appearance making it a very versatile tool in data management. XML can present or simply pass data straight to other applications.

Since there is no standard, each user can define the way he or she wants XML to look like affording a great deal of flexibility and adaptability for users on different platforms. Overall, XML is a very useful tool in data management on the web and is becoming extremely popular today. Software engineers find extensive use for XML especially for exchanging information between different software platforms without having to do any recoding. The use of XML is growing and will continue to expand.

Organizations use XML in many applications both on the web and in internally developed software. XML serves as the platform for downloading firmware to various devices. A firmware is a software that controls the behavior of equipment and governs the data acquisition and transmission by the equipment. The firmware is similar to drivers but in this case it resides inside the equipment itself. XML is used in numerous other ways in data management in my organization.

Sources Cite:

"Introduction to XML". W3Schools.com.

Marshall, V., Matthews, B., & O'Neill, K. (2000). "Using XML for data Management".

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