O'Reilly Open Source Convention - August 1-5, 2005

Session

LSB-XML Workgroup Overview and Progress Report

Mark Johnson

Track: XML
Date: Wednesday, August 3rd, 2005
Time: 5:20pm - 6:05pm
Location: E143-144

The goal of the LSB-XML Workgroup is to develop and promote a robust, extensible XML/SGML component of the Linux Standard Base (LSB) that focuses on the implementation of XML and SGML-related tools and technologies on LSB systems.

With a substantial base of support from the open source community as well as commercial developers targeting enterprise implementations, XML has clearly become the container of choice for digital information. Also, the evolution of XML tools from SGML tools and the gradual shift of much open source documentation from SGML to XML has resulted in a good deal of overlap between the two technologies, for which this workgroup will provide solutions.

For LSB-compliant systems to meet their stated goal of compatibility, the completion of a fully-developed specification for XML- and SGML-related applications is essential.

The workgroup deliverables will be important to application developers working on software in this domain, as they will need to know the specifics of a number of implementation issues. Examples here are the policies for directory layouts, file placement, caching and registration mechanisms for resources retrieved from the network, as well as implementation recommendations for OASIS XML Catalogs. Additionally, the workgroup may also consider developing recommendations for tools to aid in the packaging and registration of resources during installation.

The deliverables of the workgroup will be included in both the LSB and in the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS).

Johnson, chair of the newly-formed LSB-XML workgroup, provides an overview and progress report on the efforts of the group.