Is there a standard way for creating an xml-based markup language? Similar to mxml

Question

Are there any tools or references out there for creating an xml-based markup language? I'm mainly interested in the process for creating a markup language.

Are their existing tools or processes in place to help do this?

Take mxml for instance with adobe flex. How would you go about creating something similar to it? Did they use standard / accepted procedures for defining all the objects in the language? If so, where can I go to read about the topic?

Also, I've looked at Eclipse's XText. Can this be used to create an xml markup?

Thanks.

Answer 1

You'll want to look into creating a DTD or XML Schema, which would allow your markup to be validated and processed by standard XML tools. If you want to make transformations between your markup language and another, look into XSLT and XSL-FO, which give you a lot of power and flexibility without the need to write your own transformation software.

Markup doesn't have intrinsic meaning: what your language represents is entirely up to the applications you write that use it. Any XML schemata you create, no matter how formally you specify them, are going to have an ad-hoc element outside the XML that's defined by your application. It's up to you to keep that organised and sane.

Answer 2

There's no standard way, and no automated tool, but there are years of experience in object modelling and document design, and an extensive literature that you can learn from. Like all design, it's half art and half science.