pcplantdb

[Richard Morris <webmaster@pfaf.org>]

Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:
> > > I will want to use XML coding to redo my own commercial website which 
> > > I will use to promote my market farm's produce  and gardening hand 
> > > tools I will make in my shop.
> > > It will contain lots of photos and product information plus many 
> > > links and references to other North Carolina businesses.  I plan to 
> > > move to Register.com for webhosting
> > > as they offer a great del and run unix.
> > >
> > > Can you recommend a good book on XML? I hand code using a good text 
> > > editor like Textpad, Uedit or Notetab. Maybe I will need an XML editor.
> > The book I used is XML in a Nutshell, from O'Riley, it covers most of 
> > the most common XML stuff, but is quite heavy going.
> I will look at a copy of this the next time I am in B&N or Borders.
>
> > A lot depends on quite what you want to do with xml as it is a very 
> > vast subject. XHTML is a version of HTML which complies with XML 
> > standards, this may be wat you want to used.
> I will do this, get a good book on XHTML and be done with it. I am not 
> sure what I want to do exactly but wil get some ideas once I read an 
> XHTML text.

There are lots of other XML applications.

XSTL - aplies transformations to an XML document. This allows one
type of XML document to be transfered into another. For example
we can transform our own pcplantdb format into xhtml.

XLink, XPath an xml way to specify links and select parts of an xml 
document.

RDF, dublin core - metadata, used to specify data about a document. Eg, 
author and copyright info.

etc....

Currently I've been looking at microformats. These are very simple
bits of markup which can be easily added to existing documents.
There are microformats for tagged links, visitors cards, events.

<ul>
<li class=“xfolkentry”>
      <a class=“taggedlink”
      href=“http://developers.technorati.com/wiki/MicroFormat”>
        Microformats
      </a>
    <span class=“extended”>
      Introduces the concept of microformats.
    </span>
      <a rel="tag" 
href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/microformats";>Microformats</a>
</li>

<li class=“xfolkentry”>
      <a class=“taggedlink” 
href=“http://thecommunityengine.com/home/archives/2005/05/xfolk_entry_04.html”>
      xFolk</a>
    <span class=“extended”>
        A microformat for implementing tagged links.
    </span>
      <a rel=“tag”
       href=“http://www.technorati.com/tag/xfolk”>
        xfolk</a>
      <a rel="tag" 
href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/microformats";>Microformats</a>
</li>

<li class=“xfolkentry”>
      <a class=“taggedlink” 
href=“http://developers.technorati.com/wiki/hCard”>
      hCard</a>
    <span class=“extended”>
        A microformat for implementing visitors cards.
    </span>
      <a rel=“tag”
       href=“http://www.technorati.com/tag/hcard”>
        hCard</a>
      <a rel="tag" 
href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/microformats";>Microformats</a>
</li>

<li class=“xfolkentry”>
      <a class=“taggedlink” 
href=“http://developers.technorati.com/wiki/hCalendar”>
      hCard</a>
    <span class=“extended”>
        A microformat for implementing events and calanders.
    </span>
      <a rel=“tag”
       href=“http://www.technorati.com/tag/hCalendar”>
        hCalendar</a>
      <a rel="tag" 
href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/microformats";>Microformats</a>
</li>

</ul>



> Eventally I will have lots of photos, videos and text to share with 
> other websites looking for useful information. I hope to document 
> activity in my gardens and in the
> permaculture systems integrated with them.
>
> Guess its good that France and Holland nixed the EU constitution; maybe 
> this gets Tony Blair off the hook; but what for the future of a tight 
> European federation?

Its very wierd. For the most part people just haven't a clue what this 
whole constitution thing is about. Apart from the fact its our gov 
telling us what we should think. There is also a worry nationalist/right 
wing/xenophobic trend.

In the UK they has been talk of referendum on Europe for many years now. 
 But the Gov has not had the guts to hold one as it seems quite clear 
that it would be avery strong no. This is a sign of lack of trust in the 
people.

The best argument for a constitution I've heard came from George Mombiot 
(a big mover in the land reform movement). His arguement was that we 
actually need a a counter to the US and by unifying in Europe we could 
actually keep America in check.

There does seem to be a mood throughout Europe for sticking two fingers 
up the existing governments. The UK election was a lot about telling 
Blair we didn't like the war. Both France and Germany have also received 
a big kickings from the people is the last few weeks.

Personally I'm broadly in favor of a more global outlook. A lot of the 
problems we are going to face in the coming years are going to be global 
in nature, climate change and all that. For these we do need some global 
bodies, but not global bodies controlled by the ruling elite.

Rich