xml-dev - Re: XML, HTML or SGML

[Peter Murray-Rust <peter@ursus.demon.co.uk>]

At 19:49 21/07/98 +0200, Andrea Anders wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I want to create a learning environment for the internet

Excellent! This is a really important area and one where there is a huge
amount of scope.

based on
>SGML-Files. But SGML is unhandily, I think. (I use DynaWeb.)
>
>The learning environment should include a thesaurus, glossary, question &
>answers (interactively), control of learning progress, aids of navigation and
>orientation, make bookmarks, make annotations, searching for words.
>Furthermore it should contain case studies, schedule, email, mailinglists
>etc. 

I would strongly recommend XML - at least that is what I am going to use
myself :-). here are some areas I know about:
	- we have implemented a robust scalable glossary/thesaurus tool (the
Virtual Hyperglossary) at http://www.vhg.co.uk. This is based on XML (and
its friends like XLink) and is designed to support any vertical sector (we
already have projects in hand). It also supports multilinguality. It is
based on ISO12620 so that by careful choice of dataCategorys you can create
glossaries, dictionaries, thesauri, etc. We have used it on glossaries up
to about 12000 terms with many levels of hierarchy. These can be handled by
my (free) XML browser JUMBO if you have a reasonable amount of memory. The
true power of the hyperglossary, however, is that it is designed to support
multiple distributed glossaries, specifically through XLink (when the ink
is dry on that spec).
	- Dan Brickley and colleagues (see XML-DEV a few months ago and probably
www.sil.org) have developed a Tutorial Markup Language which should manage
you multiple choice questions.
	- James Schoening and colleagues (through the P1484 project) are working
on terminology for distance education and will be using XML.
	We - at the VSMS Nottingham - are developing XML tools for managing
student information (including online submission and monitoring of work).

	There are doubtless lots of other projects at an early stage.

>
>I prefer XML, but you have much more experiences in electronic publishing
>of XML-, HTML- and SGML-documents. Which document format is the best for 
>each component you think?
>
>A problem is I think that XML-documents can't be viewed via www-browser.
>MSIE 5.0 is not able to handle true XML, isn`t it?

I am told it does - MS are members of the W3C and have been actively
supportive of XML. But it's very early days for the major browser
manufacturers.

	HTH

	P.

>
>Thanks for help.
>
>Andrea
>
>
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>
Peter Murray-Rust, Director Virtual School of Molecular Sciences, domestic
net connection
VSMS http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/vsms, Virtual Hyperglossary
http://www.venus.co.uk/vhg

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