In this second colloquium on XML in our department, I will show how I harnessed the capabilities of the language to separate information from presentation in the creation of laboratory writeups for Computer Science 4. From one XML document containing practically everything one would want to know about a lab, I can generate grading guides in multiple formats, a configuration file for the grading programs, pre-lab and in-lab questions files, and of course, the lab writeup itself.
XSL, the XML Stylesheet Language, will be introduced, as well as the notion of an XSLT (XSL Translator). Advantages and disadvantages of these technologies will be discussed.
Finally, a demonstration of an excellent XML design tool, XMLSpy, will be presented.
A basic understanding of the motivation and syntax of XML is assumed.
Colloquia Series page.