xmlhack: Editors' Newswire for 28 January, 2003

A collected summary of items that ran on the xmlhack newswire on 28 January, 2003.

PyXML 0.8.2 released
from Uche Ogbuji at 16:34, 28 Jan

PyXML includes many tools for XML processing in Python, including SAX and DOM tools. This is mostly a bug fix release.

OASIS XML Common Biometric Format (XCBF) approved as an OASIS Committee Specification
from Uche Ogbuji at 15:24, 28 Jan

XCBF works to define a common set of secure XML encodings for the formats specified in Common Biometric Exchange File Format (CBEFF). The XCBF TC has also begun the process of making XCBF an OASIS standard.

XmlTask 1.4 released, a tool for editing XML files in Apache Ant
from Uche Ogbuji at 15:19, 28 Jan

XmlTask is an open-source tool which allows modification of XML files during an Ant build. This release includes UI improvements and a change to Apache license.

UBL Schemas Released for Public Review
from Uche Ogbuji at 14:31, 28 Jan

The first draft of an XML-based royalty-free data representation standard for e-commerce has been released by the OASIS Universal Business Language (UBL) Technical Committee. Seven basic business documents are covered in this release.

Python Tool for excerpting schema/examples into XHTML spec
from Uche Ogbuji at 07:49, 28 Jan

Joseph Reagle developed a program that offers two approaches towards helping auto-generate specifications from a schema

An Algorithm for Streaming XPath Processing with Forward and Backward Axes
from Uche Ogbuji at 07:38, 28 Jan

In this paper by Barton, Charles and Raghavachari, Fontoura, and Vanja Josifovski of IBM Research, the authors demonstrate significant optimizations of XPath processing.

DTDs vs XML Schema
from Simon St.Laurent at 01:30, 28 Jan

Slashdot takes up the endless thread, and notes RELAX NG as well.