General Interest Forums

December 1, 1999

Edd Dumbill

XML-L

This mailing list exists to facilitate general discussion of XML. It is a good place to ask questions if you are just starting out and are considering the potential benefits of XML usage. The quality of responses is usually very high: some experienced XML developers and authors read and post to this list.

Traffic level: Medium (10-15 posts per day)
Archives: http://listserv.heanet.ie/xml-l.html
How to subscribe: Follow this link or send mail to listserv@listserv.hea.ie.

comp.text.xml newsgroup

This newsgroup is similar in character to the XML-L mailing list, hosting a broad range of topics. Traffic is higher on this newsgroup than on XML-L, however, and the discussions can be less focused.

Traffic level: High (30+ posts per day)
Archives: Available from deja.com
How to subscribe: Subscribe to the comp.text.xml newsgroup from your newsreader software.

XML-DEV

This is definitely the most technical and well-used of the XML mailing lists. Notable for its group effort leading to the development of SAX, the Simple API for XML, this list is read by the most experienced XML developers, many of whom are members of W3C working groups.

Questions of a nature central to the future development of XML are often raised here—frequently leading to long and involved discussions. XML-DEV is not always an easy place for the beginner.

Traffic level: High (20+ posts per day)
Archives: http://www.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/
How to subscribe: Send mail to majordomo@xml.org containing "subscribe xml-dev" in the body.

XSL-list

This mailing list was created for the discussion of XSL technology: XSLT Transforms and XSL Formatting Objects (FOs). XSL is turning out to be one of the most popular applications of XML. A broad spectrum of developers, from expert to beginner, subscribe and post to this list. XSL tools developers like Mike Kay, James Clark and James Tauber discuss finer points of the specifications and their implementations on the list.

Despite the presence of such heavyweights, questions from beginners and those struggling with XSL are also welcome, and frequently meet with very helpful responses. It has almost become a spectator sport to observe how many ingenious answers come back to a question about XSLT! The XSLT archives, linked below, are searchable, and contain some very useful information. Try searching these before posting a problem.

Traffic level: Medium/High (20-30 posts per day)
Archives: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list/
How to subscribe: Send mail to majordomo@mulberrytech.com containing "subscribe XSL-List" in the body.