XML and Java™ from scratch

Introduction

Unless you've been living under the proverbial rock for the last few years, you're probably aware that the World Wide Web has been transforming society. Because you're looking at this book, you're probably also aware that the “language” of the Web is HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language. But, what you might not be aware of is how important those last two words really are.

What Is a Markup Language?

A markup language is a way of describing content—for instance, to help indicate how you want it to look. You might have specific tags, in this case indicated by < and >, that mean certain things. If you want bold, you might use <b>. For italic, you might use <i>. But the important thing is that the reader (or more likely, the program being ...