XML Where to start?

[videotoys]

Anyone work with XML? I took a class in it about 4 years ago and was using it a little but never got to far with it, so to refresh my memory and anyone else whos interested maybe someone could give a push into the XML world, starting with what its used for usually and how to create your own and what you need to view it or if its more like a database? Also this whole RSS 2 thing I keep seeing, how do I implement that kind of thing, its supposed to get real big and I dont want to be the last to know. Thanks

[RysChwith]

Decent place to start:

http://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp

To be brief, XML is used to store data. Any application you have that requires data can use XML. It's not always the best choice, but most Web languages have built-in XML parsers, which makes it rather convenient. The only thing you need to work with XML is a text editor. Most HTML editors (which are really just glorified text editors) will also work with XML.

All RSS is is a specific XML format. You keep the XML file somewhere on your site, and anyone who's interested can pull that into an RSS reader or aggregator, along with all the other RSS feeds he or she reads. It's generally used to inform people about site updates, news headlines, blog postings, and the like.

If you really want to understand XML, you'll also want to look into DTDs (document type definitions) and XSL (XML Styling Language).

Rys