> ## XML, exchangeable format

> XML, the Extensible Markup Language, is the preferred technology in many information-transfer scenarios because of its ability to encode information in a way that is easy to read, process, and generate. It has goals of simplicity, portability, and flexibility; and continue to be developed in groups that involve industry, development community and academia. Not surprisingly there is a good future for the application basing on XML.

> Then what does it look like? Here is the example:

> The first three lines are

>   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no" ?>
>   <!DOCTYPE data SYSTEM "SequenceData.dtd">
>   <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="ShowSequenceData.xsl" media="screen"?>

> Please do not edit or delete them if you do not know what you are doing. Just skip and leave them. Moreover, there are two files in your directory, HomeDirectory/data/SequenceData.dtd and HomeDirectory/data/ShowSequenceData.xsl. You have to copy those files to your working directory. For example, you want to put your sequence data in C:\MyData, then you should copy SequenceData.dtd and ShowSequenceData.xsl into C:\MyData. The first file is the definition of keyword, and the last one is the render of XML.

> Then the following content is

>   <data type = "sequence">
>   ......
>   </data>

> There is nothing behind "</data>". So make sure "</data>" is the last word. You can put the sequence information, sequence, and authors' information between "<data type = "sequence">" and "</data>".

> How to define a population or species?

>   <population name = "population1">
>   ......
>   (one or more sequences)
>   ......
>   </population>

> You must define the name of population, which is quoted by double quotation.

> The definition of sequence is simple. For example,

>   <seq name = "seq1">AAA</seq>
>   <seq name = "seq2" count = "2" >AAA</seq>
>   <seq name = "seq3" count = "2" locus = "CCR5" >AAA</seq>
>   <seq name = "seq4" count = "2" locus = "CCR5" comment = "Example of comment">AAA</seq>

> You have to define the name of sequence. The count of sequence will be 1 when you do not define it. The locus will be "locus1" when you do not define it. The comment will be empty when you do not define it.

> You can define the authors' information. The definition of author looks like

>   <author>
>   <name>author's name</name>
>   <address >author's address</address>
>   <e-mail>author's e-mail</e-mail>
>   </author>
> The following is an example of XML.
>   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no" ?>
>   <!DOCTYPE data SYSTEM "SequenceData.dtd">
>   <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="ShowSequenceData.xsl" media="screen"?>
>   <data type = "sequence">
>   <population name = "population1">
>   <seq name = "seq1" locus = "locus1" count = "2" comment = "Example of comment">
>   AAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTT
>   </seq>
>   <seq name = "seq2" locus = "locus2" count = "1">
>   GGGGAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTT
>   </seq>
>   </population>
>   <population name = "population2">
>   <seq name = "seq3" locus = "locus1" count = "2">
>   AAAAAAAAAAAATTTTCTTTT
>   </seq>
>   <seq name = "seq4" locus = "locus1" count = "1">
>   GGGGAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTC
>   </seq>
>   </population>
>   <author>
>   <name>Haipeng Li</name>
>   <address>
>   Human Genetics Center,
>   University of Texas at Houston,
>   6901 Bertner Ave.,
>   Houston, Texas 77030,
>   U.S.A.
>   &
>   Kunming Institute of Zoology,
>   Chinese Academy of Sciences,
>   Kunming 650223,
>   P. R. China
>   </address>
>   <e-mail>hli@sph.uth.tmc.edu</e-mail>
>   </author>
>   <author>
>   <name>Yun-Xin Fu</name>
>   <address>
>   Human Genetics Center,
>   University of Texas at Houston,
>   6901 Bertner Ave.,
>   Houston, Texas 77030,
>   U.S.A.
>   </address>
>   <e-mail>fu@hgc.sph.uth.tmc.edu</e-mail>
>   </author>
>   </data>
> Save it as *.xml, and make sure there are two files, SequenceData.dtd and ShowSequenceData.xsl under the current directory. Then you can view the content when you install the Internet Explorer. It should look like

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