Don Park posted a status report for SML to xml-dev. SML is alive and well and a strict subset of XML.

SML supports documents in UTF-8 and UTF-16 encodings only, with support for numeric and predefined entities. DTDs are not used, nor are CDATA sections, the XML declaration, processing instructions, and comments. A new restriction, barring child element names from conflicting with attribute names, should simplify processing SML documents.

Colors are not part of SML itself, but a means of describing the different types of nodes in various documents. While SML only supports the 'black and white' of name and value, other markup languages (XML, for instance) contain other kinds of nodes which are marked with their own colors. Leigh Dodds (an xmlhack editor) has produced a coloring book demonstrating how this works. SML is also working with grove models and different grammar and syntax possibilities.

SML development is proceeding on SML- DEV, its own mailing list.

More stories covering SML include:

• SML going strong, discussion heated (xmlhack) - Coverage of XML-dev discussion of SML
• SML: Simplifying XML (XML.com) - Coverage of developer opinion as SML was starting
• Goldilocks and SML (XML.com) - A strong opinion piece on SML and its place in the XML world
• Reductio ad absurdum: Jelliffe, Park and the Stupid Markup Language (xmlhack) - The origins of SML