h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

does anyone know of any good books or websites which cover using xml as a program and platform neutral configuration specificaion?

all the stuff I can find so far assumes that you are using it like a database, and intend to transform it for a website using xslt an soap, which is completely over the top for my needs.

To find out what it is really for, try the official web site at http://www.w3.org/XML/

Well, hairy, that's a really helpfull reply.

just point out that it isn't originally designed for that purpose, and completely ignore the fact that a lot of programs use it both as configuration files, and as a non-propriatory file format for data exchange.

I will therefore ask the same question again, in terms which might get a better response.

I know it isn't designed for that purpose, but the fact is that lots of programs do use xml in that way. Therefore, does anyone know of any books or websites which cover this so I can find out the recomended way of doing this.

My reply was intended to be helpful. I'm sorry you did not find it so.

I haven't really seen any websites or books that deal with XML in that way but I believe the best way to deal with configuration settings in XML is just to pick a format, make it consistent, and stick with it.

Since XML in non-semantic, it doesn't really matter how you define the configuration as long as you define it consistently.

Although not always necessary you may find it helpful to formally define a Schema for your format. Having a Schema provides a mathematically precise definition of your data format which you can validate against.