If you want to connect Flash to the outside world, you need to learn XML. This may strike you as yet another a tedious chore. (It did us.) But it is not. This is an opportunity to get on top of a wave that is transforming the Internet. The XML standard is relatively simple, but the XML perspective is profound. Simply learning the syntax gets you going today with Flash - but if you understand the purpose of this standard, you will be ready for the Web of tomorrow.

This chapter presents the roots of XML, the philosophy of XML and power that this philosophy can provide - especially in confronting a world where change is the only constant and where everyday the role of automation increases.

These pages can be skipped by any pragmatic programmer. They contain no code nor rules of syntax. More thoughtful readers might want to spend fifteen minutes contemplating why XML -which manages to be both simple and clumsy - merits the attention it attracts. For them, we present a perspective elevated enough to see past the immediate requirements of today’s short term problem, and ultimately far more valuable.