A Language Without Words
One of the aspects of XML that is different from any human language you will come across is that it has no words!
You might ask why, if XML has no words, it is called a language. The so-called XML is more accurately called Extensible Markup Meta Language (XMML). It is probably too late to change the title for the better, but the important thing is that you understand that XML is different from any human language that you use. Following that idea through, you will hopefully realize that when it comes to XML, you have to be careful about what words mean. You can't just assume they mean the same as in everyday speech.
The following illustrates just how careful you need to be when thinking through some of this stuff.
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