Simon St. Laurent
Author of "XML: A Primer", "Building XML Applications" and "Inside XML DTDs: Scientific and Technical." Simon is a technical writer and sometime Java developer. After spending several years working in hypertext, he found XML and decided he was home.Website: http://www.simonstl.com
Articles by this author:
The XQuery Chimera Takes Center StageWelcome to 2007! This week Simon St.Laurent gives us an interesting report from the XML 2006 conference. [Jan. 3, 2007]
JSON on the Web, or: The Revenge of SML
Simon St. Laurent looks back to see if we can all learn a lesson or two: were there signs early on in the life of XML that something like JSON would eventually do very well as a Web data format? [Jul. 5, 2006]
The Next Web?
Simon St. Laurent steps up to ask which of the competing visions for the next stage of the Web's development have borne fruit, including the latest contender: Web 2.0 and AJAX. [Mar. 15, 2006]
Hacking Election Maps with XML and MapServer
By day Simon St.Laurent plays editor of such recent books as Mapping Hacks and Web Mapping Illustrated, but at night he runs a weblog about his town's politics. His day job taught him a number of ways to hack political maps using XML and MapServer. In this article, Simon shows how he colored America's red-blue political map in a new shade. If you want to see how mapping and location technologies are being used right now, check out O'Reilly's upcoming Where 2.0 Conference. [May. 31, 2005]
XML 2004: From the Exhibition Floor
Simon St. Laurent reports from the exhibition floor of the XML 2004 conference in Washington, DC. [Nov. 19, 2004]
Reports from XML Europe 2003
The annual XML Europe Conference took place in London, May 2003. This article collects together reports from XML.com writers Uche Ogbuji and Simon St.Laurent. [May. 21, 2003]
Growing Ideas at XML 2001
The XML 2001 exposition featured a special "Incubator" zone, where young XML companies exhibited their products. We checked out the encouraging array of new technologies. [Dec. 19, 2001]
Programming Web Services with XML-RPC
This excerpt from O'Reilly & Associates' recently published Programming Web Services with XML-RPC discusses using PHP to integrate two web applications into a single interface. In the given example, the authors show how a technology news service based on RSS (RDF Site Summary) feeds was created. [Jul. 18, 2001]
XML Ain't What It Used To Be
Current XML development at the W3C threatens to obliterate the original promise of XML by piling on too many features and obscuring what XML does best. [Feb. 28, 2001]
Getting Topical
At the recent XML 2000 conference the XML Topic Maps (XTM) specification made an impressive debut. Simon St.Laurent reviews the development and prospects of XTM. [Dec. 20, 2000]
XML 2000 Show Floor Review
New and interesting technologies from the show floor at XML 2000, including Schemantix, Fourthought, Kinecta, Ontopia and Architag. [Dec. 7, 2000]
XML DevCon Fall 2000 Coverage Collected coverage from XML.com of the XML DevCon Fall 2000 conference, held November in San Jose. [Nov. 22, 2000]
XMLDevCon2000 Showfloor highlights
Simon St. Laurent uncovers a few gems on the XMLDevCon 2000 trade floor and explains their relevance to developers. Discoveries include XML Spy 3.5, XML Authority 2.0, and <xml>Transport and <xsl>Composer. [Nov. 18, 2000]
XML: A Disruptive Technology
XML is placing increasingly heavy loads on the existing technical infrastructure of the Internet. This article charts some of the pressure points, and speculates on the benefits of an XML-specific foundation to the Internet. [Jun. 21, 2000]
On Display: XML Web Pages with Internet Explorer 5.x
Completing our survey of XML browsing support, we take a look at Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and attempt to create a cross-browser XML document that works in Mozilla, Opera, and MSIE. [May. 2, 2000]
Browser XML Display Support Chart
An at-a-glance guide to the level of XML browsing support in Mozilla, Opera, and Internet Explorer. [May. 2, 2000]
On Display: XML Web Pages with Opera 4.0
In the second of our series examining XML display support in browsers, Simon St.Laurent investigates how Opera 4 compares to Mozilla. [Apr. 19, 2000]
On Display: XML Web Pages with Mozilla
Widespread support for XML in browsers is finally on the horizon. In the first of a series covering Mozilla, IE, and Opera, Simon St.Laurent looks at formatting XML with CSS2 inside Mozilla. [Mar. 29, 2000]
Relax, and Take it Easy
Delegates to XTech 2000 on Wednesday were shown two technologies aimed at making their lives easier: EasySAX, a Python XML processor, and RELAX, a simplified schema language. [Mar. 2, 2000]
XML With Style: eBooks and XSL-FOs
The XSL Formatting Objects specification has seen renewed activity recently. Simon St.Laurent investigates applications of this and other styling technology at XTech 2000. [Mar. 2, 2000]
When XML Gets Ugly
What are the security consequences for a Web full of XML? Co-chair David Megginson used his keynote speech at XTech 2000 to focus on this issue. [Mar. 2, 2000]
Object Design becomes eXcelon Corp.
XML is here to stay: Object Design has renamed itself after its flagship XML product, eXcelon. Simon St.Laurent reports on the name change and eXcelon Corp.'s new range of XML products. [Feb. 2, 2000]
XML'99 Expo Update
The expo at XML'99 saw many vendors presenting their new XML technologies. Simon St.Laurent takes a look at some of the most interesting and innovative products on show. [Dec. 8, 1999]
XML Standards Update
Simon St.Laurent analyzes the progress made by various industry consortia as presented to the XML'99 conference Monday morning. [Dec. 6, 1999]
Describing your Data: DTDs and XML Schemas
Are you confused about which XML schema syntax to use? Concerned that your XML applications remain interoperable with future XML schema standards? Simon St. Laurent guides us through the maze of XML schema languages, focusing on DTDs and XML Schemas. [Dec. 1, 1999]
