6.1. Hacks 58-74
This chapter describes how to jump up and down on Firefox using XML
content. Sometimes that content starts out with an HTML page, and
sometimes it doesn't. You have the option of a pure
XML environment or an HTML-driven one.
One of the big problems with XML support in web browsers is
feature creep. Once you have XML, you want
XML
namespaces. Once you have namespaces, you want XLink. The next thing
you know, you're buried under an onslaught of XML
standards. Feature creep makes cross-browser content more challenging
than usual, because every browser has a different idea of which
direction it should creep in.
Nevertheless, there are plenty of places where quality XML content is
needed and where cross-browser compatibility isn't a
problem. Intranets are one such place; help systems, bundled content
solutions such as CD distributions, and kiosks are others. Finally,
there's the growing area of user interfaces, which
are supported by a class of XML standards called XUILs (XML User
Interface Languages); in this case, that means XUL. Firefox is a
suitable platform for all of these uses.
In fact, Firefox is particularly rich in
XML standards support. Whether
it's web services, knowledge management, data
transforms, dictionaries, or feeds, Firefox does
it's best to find a standard to implement.
There's no room in this chapter for extensive
standards nit-picking; this is just a tour of the major features
Firefox supports.
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