Synopsis for 5 Fields Learning

                      Wenzhong Cao


I introduce six web sites I favorite for the five fields, which are 
XML, Java, JavaScript, CORBA and Wireless devices. These fields are
talked by our professor for course Information Technology. Although there
are many sites for each field, I feel the six linked URL's here best in
detail and contents. Following paragraphs show briefly what I have learned
from.

I. XML

What is XML? 
It is the eXtensible markup language, a specification for structured
documents produced by the World Wide Web Consortium. If we are familiar
with SGML, then XML is SGML-lite, a clean-up version of the ISO standard
for describing interchange formats. 

A guide to XML reported by Norman Walsh is at 
http://www.xml.com/pub/w3j/s3.walsh.html

Elements are the most common form of markup. Delimited by angle brackets
(< >), most elements identify the nature of the content they surround.
Some elements may be empty, as seen above, in which case they have no
content. If an element is not empty, it begins with a start-tag,
<element>, and ends with an end-tag, </element>. For example, we make an
element <director>Ed Wood</director>. This element name "director"
allows us to mark up the value "Ed Wood" semantically, so we can
differentiate that particular bit of data from another, similar bit of
data. For example, there might be another element with the value "Ed
Wood."

Attributes are name-value pairs that occur inside tags after the element
name. For example, <div class="preface"> is the div element with the
attribute class having the value preface. In XML, all attribute values
must be quoted.

This guide provides a technical introduction to XML with an eye towards
guiding the reader to appropriate sections of the XML specification when
greater technical detail is desired. To read this guide report, you had
better have knowledge in HTML for This it is geared towards a
reader with some HTML or SGML experience, although that experience is not
absolutely necessary. The XML Link and XML Style specifications are also
briefly outlined.

To get started with XML programming, we can also read another general
staring guide at
http://www.xml.com/pub/norm/part1/getstart1.html
There are three part in that article. In Parts I and II of that article,
we will be been moving from the traditional text processing model for
accessing XML documents through progressively higher abstractions. A next
logical step from Part III would be query languages. 


II. Java

To get started to learn Java, we can read instruction at
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/getStarted/
It tells us the basic structure for Java program code.

To learn Java language through, we can read contents at 
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/java/
From there, we can be clear on its language basics, object basics,
classes with inheritance, interface and package.


III. Wireless

It is possible that our next computer probably won't be a computer. It'll
be a phone, an organizer, or a pager. You'll use it for communications: to
read e-mail on the go, to find the nearest gas station, to check your bank
balance, to buy groceries. And it will connect to the Internet wirelessly. 
You can visit web page at
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/shaffer/1999/12/20/
to view a talk about this.

This wireless computer may be most interesting for us, right?


IV. CORBA

   CORBA is on my first knowing now. It is the acronym for Common Object
Request Broker Architecture, OMG's open, vendor-independent architecture
and infrastructure that computer applications use to work together over
networks. Using the standard protocol IIOP, a CORBA-based program from any
vendor, on almost any computer, operating system, programming language,
and network, can interoperate with a CORBA-based program from the same or
another vendor, on almost any other computer, operating system, 
programming language, and network. 

   If some one want to get familiar with CORBA, the suggestion I give for
suitable interface is at
http://www.omg.org/gettingstarted/corbafaq.htm#TotallyNew


V. JavaScript

   Script is generally a part of HTML program, especially for DHTML. It
can declare and define variables for interfaces. There are several
different kind of scripts for HTML program, like VB script, CGI script,
etc. JavaScript is contained within an HTML document. For example: 

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>My First JavaScript Program</TITLE>
<SCRIPT>
document.write('My First JavaScript Program');
</SCRIPT>
</HEAD>
</HTML> 

When you save this, remember to save it with an .htm or .html extension. 

For JavaScript instruction in more detail, please visit
http://www.webdevelopersjournal.com/articles/jsintro1/js_begin1.html
There are (1). variables and operators explained,
          (2). object properties and flow controls,
and       (3). functions and classes 


IV. Summary

   The above 6 linked web URL's are my favorite sites for the new and
the learned fields in XML, Java, JavaScript, CORBA and Wireless devices.
Actually, there are always more than one web sites for any one field. The
main reason I like the above related web sites is that they give detail
and full important contents about each one.