Articles by Steve Hoenisch

Switching Document Views

Thu, 20 Jun 2002 00:00:00 EDT

Complex technical documentation presented on the Internet calls for user interfaces or navigational options that empower readers to quickly gain access to the information that suits their needs. If your readers are viewing documents in an Internet Explorer-only environment, you can let them select the level of detail that will be displayed by combining XML, XSLT, script, and methods of the Document Object Model.

Transforming XML Documents into HTML

Fri, 22 Feb 2002 00:00:00 EST

The power and elegance of XSLT - the Extensible Stylesheet Language for Transformations - stems from its ability to transform XML documents into other output formats like HTML, fulfilling one of the original promises of XML: separating content from presentation. XSLT is particularly powerful because a single stylesheet can format all the XML documents conforming to a DTD into HTML for publication on a Web site. The stylesheet can also be used to automatically generate such features as a hyperlinked table of contents, the building of which requires substantial manual work without XML.

An Introduction to XSLT

Fri, 28 Dec 2001 00:00:00 EST

You've probably heard the propaganda by now: XML blesses you with a way to separate content from presentation. Separation in turn yields productive gains over HTML and other data formats used to manage content. In a process sometimes called single sourcing, the content of an XML document can be formatted for display in a Web browser, reformatted for delivery to such devices as mobile phones and handheld computers, and converted into a PDF file suitable for printing.

Declaring Attributes And Entities In DTDs

Thu, 01 Nov 2001 00:00:00 EST

Introductions to XML all too often ignore the power of the attribute. It gets neglected in favor of the element's ability to capture the structure of a document or the meaning of content. But in developing flexible, reusable document models and in capturing metainformation about structure or content, the attribute's overlooked utility quickly comes into focus.

DTD Development Driving You Delirious?

Fri, 17 Aug 2001 00:00:00 EDT

No, the abbreviation DTD is not etymologically related to a similar abbreviation from medical science, namely, DTs (or delirium tremens), a violent delirium with tremors, which is induced by the prolonged use of alcohol. Though in absorbing the intricacies of DTDs and trying to develop your first one, you may begin to wonder whether the two terms are somehow connected.

Structuring Documents With XML

Sun, 03 Jun 2001 00:00:00 EDT

This month's tutorial, the second in a series, picks up where last month's left off - on the path toward publishing your résumé on the Internet as an XML document. Last month (XML-J, Vol. 2, issue 5) I presented an overview of XML, described its basic building blocks, and demonstrated how to create a simple XML document.

Getting Up To Speed With XML

Tue, 22 May 2001 00:00:00 EDT

XML. And XSLT, DTD, XPath, XSL-FO, XLink, XPointer, SAX, and DOM. To the uninitiated, all the talk about XML quickly dissolves into an alphabet soup of W3C recommendations, abbreviations, and acronyms.