metalanguage and markup language

[scottjsn]

I am a little confused between the metalanguage and markup language.

For in stance, is XML a markup language or metalanguage, or both?

Please see read the following:

SGML is the granddaddy markup language that served as the foundation for HTML and XML. HTML is used for rendering the document, and XML is used for identifying the content of the document (--This statement sounds like defining XML as a markup langue).

(--But then it further states)
Markup languages are different to metalanguages as they only describe how a document should be presented and not the syntax of a computer programming language. XML is the metalanguage used to describe to XHTML just as SGML is used to describe HTML.

--From this paragraph, it sounds like that the XML is a metalanguagebut not a markup language.


Then what is XML, a markup language, metalanguage, or both?


Thanks.


Scott

[NogDog]

Just a lot of gobbledy-gook, as far as I'm concerned. XML is a mark-up language, but it is not necessarily a document mark-up language -- it can be used to mark up text for a wide variety of pursposes. XHTML is one specific implementation of XML specifically tailored for use as a document mark-up language.