Search results

1 – 10 of over 1000
Article
Publication date: 1 March 1995

Jeffrey Hsu

An important development in the processing and formatting of text has been the creation and use of markup languages, especially with the increased interest in electronic…

Abstract

An important development in the processing and formatting of text has been the creation and use of markup languages, especially with the increased interest in electronic publishing and the Internet. An area being given particular attention has been the use of descriptive markup languages, which allow one to describe a text element or document in a way which is independent of its final output and form. One area which deserves greater attention in this regard is the creation of survey questionnaires, and any comprehensive markup language standard should include markups for supporting this application. This paper examines this need, and explains why a markup language approach would properly support the survey application and how it would extend the utility of the markup approach. A set of markups for survey creation are proposed which would serve as extensions to existing markup standards. The advantages and benefits of markup command languages as compared to traditional direct‐manipulation WYSIWYG approaches are also discussed.

Details

The Electronic Library, vol. 13 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-0473

Article
Publication date: 29 August 2008

Darius Hedgebeth

The purpose of this paper is to provide information about the extensible markup language (XML) – its history, function, legacy, and contribution to the world wide web and to the

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide information about the extensible markup language (XML) – its history, function, legacy, and contribution to the world wide web and to the discipline of knowledge management. The knowledge worker will better understand how XML supports the codification aspect of the technology pillar of knowledge management.

Design/methodology/approach

The author gives an overview of markup languages, which preceded XML, details XML syntax structure, and discusses techniques for processing XML data. Derivative markup languages which use XML's syntactical structure are listed, and an exercise explaining the process behind generating XML documents from spreadsheets is provided.

Findings

XML has served as an integral part of the world wide web for over a decade, and enables internet applications to transform and exchange data in a very efficient manner. The codification of knowledge is germane to the KM process, and XML provides a very capable means for warehousing knowledge that can later be retrieved from knowledge repositories and relational databases. Additionally, XML‐like markup languages such as ebXML (electronic business for XML) help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of knowledge organizations.

Originality/value

The paper hightlights how the management and valuation of knowledge assets are greatly facilitated by the functionality offered by XML, which enables a knowledge worker to store and retrieve knowledge artifacts in the form of structured data.

Details

VINE, vol. 38 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0305-5728

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1995

ROY RADA, GRAHAM BIRD and MIN ZHENG

Interchange of text and hypertext between various systems is vital in order to reuse text and hypertext, but the task of generating translators between different representations…

Abstract

Interchange of text and hypertext between various systems is vital in order to reuse text and hypertext, but the task of generating translators between different representations is often complex and tedious. The Integrated Chameleon Architecture (ICA) is a public domain toolset for generating translators. However, ica can only handle context‐free grammars while the grammar of hypertext is not context‐free. This paper presents an extended ICA (E‐ICA) which is based on ICA with extra pre‐ and post‐processors to handle the context‐sensitive and implicit information of hypertext. A system called SGML‐MUCH has been developed using E‐ICA. The development and use of the SGML‐MUCH system is presented as a case study with converters for the hypertext systems MUCH, Guide, Hyperties, and Toolbook described in detail.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 51 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Article
Publication date: 16 January 2009

Claire Warwick, Isabel Galina, Jon Rimmer, Melissa Terras, Ann Blandford, Jeremy Gow and George Buchanan

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the importance of documentation for digital humanities resources. This includes technical documentation of textual markup or database…

2391

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the importance of documentation for digital humanities resources. This includes technical documentation of textual markup or database construction, and procedural documentation about resource construction.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study is presented of an attempt to reuse electronic text to create a digital library for humanities users, as part of the UCIS project. The results of qualitative research by the LAIRAH study on provision of procedural documentation are discussed, as also is, user perception of the purpose, construction and usability of resources collected using semi‐structured interviews and user workshops.

Findings

In the absence of technical documentation, it was impossible to reuse text files with inconsistent markup (COCOA and XML) in a Digital Library. Also, although users require procedural documentation, about the status and completeness of sources, and selection methods, this is often difficult to locate.

Practical implications

Creators of digital humanities resources should provide both technical and procedural documentation and make it easy to find, ideally from the project web site. To ensure that documentation is provided, research councils could make documentation a project deliverable. This will be even more vital once the AHDS is no longer funded to help ensure good practice in digital resource creation.

Originality/value

Previous work has argued that documentation is important. However, the paper presents actual evidence of the problems caused by a lack of documentation and shows that this makes reuse of digital resources almost impossible. This is intended to persuade project creators who wish resources to be reused to provide documentation about its contents and technical specifications.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 65 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 July 1992

Neil Bradley

The abbreviation SGML stands for Standard Generalized Markup Language. Markup refers to adding style and formatting information to text prior to publication. It is a Standard…

Abstract

The abbreviation SGML stands for Standard Generalized Markup Language. Markup refers to adding style and formatting information to text prior to publication. It is a Standard because SGML has been accepted and published by the ISO, and is not owned by any manufacturer or software vendor. It is Generalized because SGML is powerful and flexible, allowing it to be used in many applications. And it is a Language that embodies a specification for creation of a set of rules to define the structure of a document. SGML has been designed to easily cross incompatible computer platforms, and its “open” nature allows for relatively simple access and manipulation of an SGML conforming document by both people and computers. Above all, SGML proposes a new way of thinking about document creation and presentation, by shifting document style considerations to the publication process rather than the creation process. This is done by dividing the document into named, logical elements, to which any style can be later applied. A by‐product of this approach is the effective creation of a flexible database, providing further access to the data for information retrieval or for re‐publication.

Details

Aslib Proceedings, vol. 44 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0001-253X

Article
Publication date: 28 June 2011

Claudia Raibulet and Daniele Cammareri

Mobile widgets represent applications exploiting web technologies and providing specific functionalities in an efficient and user‐friendly way. Owing to the low or medium…

Abstract

Purpose

Mobile widgets represent applications exploiting web technologies and providing specific functionalities in an efficient and user‐friendly way. Owing to the low or medium complexity of the mobile widgets, their development may be simplified and optimized through automatic mechanisms. This paper aims to address this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents an approach to the automatic generation of widgets, which is based on the separation of concerns between the specification of their structural and functional characteristics, and their appearance. The structural and functional features are expressed at a high abstraction level through the authors' Widget Markup Language, while their appearance through pre‐defined or personalized templates. The authors' automatic generator of mobile widgets translates the XML‐based documents containing the widgets description based on the Widget Markup Language into functional widgets for various available technologies.

Findings

The main non‐functional properties of the authors' widget generator are related to its extensibility towards new technologies, and the structural and functional aspects of the widgets. The validation of their solution has been done through various case studies, among which they mention the DISCo widget, a mobile widget which provides academic information for the students of the Computer Science Department at the University of Milano‐Bicocca in Italy.

Originality/value

The main advantages of the authors' approach for the development of mobile widgets can be summarized as following: adherence to the Write‐Once‐Run Everywhere paradigm, which allows developers to save time and to not have to be aware of all the differences among the different technologies; the high‐level specification of a widget is simpler than its creation from scratch, and is, therefore, accessible to a greater number of potential developers; separation between the specification and the graphical layout of the widgets; generating widgets can consider, in addition to the platform, the characteristics of devices such as screen resolution or pointing mechanism, saving the developer the management of these aspects and industrial production of widgets, such as scalable management of creating and updating a large number of applications.

Details

International Journal of Pervasive Computing and Communications, vol. 7 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-7371

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2001

Christopher J. Prom

Smaller institutions considering implementation of Encoded Archival Description (EAD) face many challenges in designing an efficient workflow and choosing standards that will…

Abstract

Smaller institutions considering implementation of Encoded Archival Description (EAD) face many challenges in designing an efficient workflow and choosing standards that will allow for future interoperability. In the past, many institutions have chosen not to implement EAD due to its perceived complexity. The EAD Cookbook, developed by Michael Fox at the Minnesota Historical Society, now greatly simplifies the creation of a best‐practices‐compliant system. However, to achieve the full benefits of the Cookbook, institutions must extend its capabilities. This article explores three areas for extension: markup macros, digitization, and workflow design. Examples and sample code are given for use with WordPerfect’s XML editor and with NoteTab Light, a freeware text editor that allows for significant workflow simplification via its built‐in scripting language. Even those with little prior programming knowledge can use these tools to extend the Cookbook.

Details

OCLC Systems & Services: International digital library perspectives, vol. 17 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1065-075X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 August 2010

Mourad Ykhlef and Sarra Alqahtani

The rapid development of Extensible Markup Language (XML) from a mere data exchange format to a universal syntax for encoding domain specific information increases the need of new…

Abstract

Purpose

The rapid development of Extensible Markup Language (XML) from a mere data exchange format to a universal syntax for encoding domain specific information increases the need of new query languages specifically visualized to address the characteristics of XML. Such languages should be able not only to extract information from XML documents, but also to apply powerful restructuring operators, based on a well‐defined semantics. Moreover, XML queries should be natural to write and understand, as also end‐users are expected to access the large XML information bases supporting their businesses. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new graphical query language for XML (GQLX) for querying and restructuring XML data.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology emphasizes on GQLX's development, which is based on G‐XML data model syntax to express a wide variety of XML queries, ranging from simple selection to expressive data transformations involving grouping, aggregation and sorting. GQLX has an operational semantics based on the annotated XML, which serves to express queries and data trees in the form of XML. The paper also presents an algorithm to achieve the matching between data and query trees after translating them into annotated XML.

Findings

Developed and demonstrated were: a G‐XML syntax; annotated XML for the semantic operations and a matching algorithm.

Research limitations/implications

The future research work on this language lies in expanding it to include recursion and nested queries.

Practical implications

The algorithms/approaches proposed can be implemented to enhance the performance of the XML query language.

Originality/value

The proposed work integrates various novel techniques for XML query syntax/semantic into a single language with a suitable matching algorithm.

Details

International Journal of Web Information Systems, vol. 6 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1744-0084

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1995

C. Edward Wall, Timothy W. Cole and Michelle M. Kazmer

During 1994, Pierian Press began experimenting with the integration of the concepts and respective strengths of both Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) and MARC. These…

Abstract

During 1994, Pierian Press began experimenting with the integration of the concepts and respective strengths of both Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) and MARC. These experiments were driven by pragmatism and self‐interest. Pierian Press publishes classified, analytical bibliographies—classical knowledge constructs—which the press and its authors would like to make available for loading on local library systems so that they can function as “maps” unto that subset of literature the respective bibliographies encompass.

Details

Reference Services Review, vol. 23 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0090-7324

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1999

Brian Kelly

This paper outlines the evolution of World Wide Web protocols. The paper reviews the original protocols developed for the web, in addressing, transport and data formats. A review…

523

Abstract

This paper outlines the evolution of World Wide Web protocols. The paper reviews the original protocols developed for the web, in addressing, transport and data formats. A review of developments of the protocols is given, including developments of web data formats (HTML 4.0, cascading stylesheets and XML), transport (HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/NG) and addressing (URLs). The paper describes how the web initially lacked a metadata architecture and outlines the emergence of a metadata architecture for the web. The paper includes a review of web technologies which have a social impact on our society, including the Web Accessibility Initiative, the Digital Signature Initiative and the Platform for Privacy Preferences Project.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 55 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

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