Have done some digging this afternoon and came up with this article which shows the similarities and ease of adaptability between XML and VRML. Here is a cut and paste of the first few paragraphs with a link to the whole article at the bottom:
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Integrating XML and VRML:
A Technical Discussion
Daniel Lipkin
Oracle Corporation
Contents
Introduction
Background
Metadata
Visualization and Style Sheets
Next Steps
Introduction
VRML, the Virtual Reality Modeling Language, is the ISO standard for representing 3D on the Web. It provides a versatile
platform for a variety of applications that use 3D as a central metaphor or interface. One of the strengths of VRML is its tight
integration with a variety of other web technologies and its ease of incorporating the benefits of those technologies, from
graphic, audio, and video formats to scripting languages and network protocols. Another powerful feature of VRML is its easy
extensibility and ability to add new node types and capabilities to the base language.
One of the most significant new web standards to emerge recently is XML, the Extensible Markup Language. XML defines a
standard format for representing and exchanging structured data on the web, enabling the use of a standard API, the
Document Object Model (DOM), for managing that data, and the deployment of standard services for generating and viewing
XML content. XML has already been widely adopted by an industry eager to overcome the limitations of HTML for
structured data. XML is expected to become a standard means for delivering database-driven web content, and already
serves as the basis for a variety of web applications, from metadata representation to domain-specific markup languages.
Although designed originally for different problem domains, the two technologies of VRML and XML have much to offer each
other, and there are a variety of areas where tighter integration between the two can provide powerful benefits. Some existing
work in this area already exists; for example, the Visual XML proposal for using XML and VRML to represent and display
structured information spaces. This paper investigates additional potential areas of synergy and suggests useful next steps.
oasis-open.org
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Tom B. |
