SVG Essentials, 2nd Edition

Appendix A. The XML You Need for SVG

The purpose of this appendix is to introduce you to XML. A knowledge of XML is essential if you wish to write SVG documents directly rather than having them generated by some graphics utility.

If you’re already acquainted with XML, you don’t need to read this appendix. If not, read on. The general overview of XML given in this appendix should be more than sufficient to enable you to work with the SVG documents that you will create. For further information about XML, the O’Reilly books Learning XML by Erik T. Ray and XML in a Nutshell by Elliotte Rusty Harold and W. Scott Means are invaluable guides.

Note that this appendix makes frequent reference to the formal XML 1.0 specification, which can be used for further investigation of topics that fall outside the scope of SVG. Readers are also directed to Tim Bray’s “Annotated XML Specification”, which provides an illuminating explanation of the XML 1.0 specification, and Norm Walsh’s technical introduction to XML.

You may have noticed that these are not recent publications. Don’t be surprised; XML is a solid, long-established standard.

What Is XML?

XML, the Extensible Markup Language, is an Internet-friendly format for data and documents, invented by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The Markup denotes a way of expressing the structure of a document within the document itself. XML has its roots in a markup language called SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language), which is used in publishing and ...