sf.pm presents:

Ostensible Markup Language

with Perl consultants and sf.pm regulars Rich Morin and Vicki Brown:

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a highly buzzword-compliant standard. It is being adopted in a variety of areas and may even be appropriate for some of these. At heart, however, it is simply a text-based system for encoding hierarchical data structures.

Vicki Brown and I use an informal variant of XML, which we refer to as Ostensible Markup Language (OML). OML is syntactically consistent with XML, allowing us to use tools such as XML::Simple, but it tends not to have DTDs or other formalities.
--Rich Morin

RSVP: As usual, we need to present a guest list to building security. We also need to make sure we order enough pizza. ;) If you're coming, please send mail to Quinn Weaver (qw at sf.pm.org) with your name and the names of any guests you will bring.

Please bring some money to chip in if you plan to partake of the pizza. Afterwards, we'll walk to Maxfield's (http://www.maxfields-restaurant.com/main/cont.html) for dessert.

Here are the particulars (also available at http://sf.pm.org/):

Date: Tuesday, May 28, 2002

Time: 8:00 p.m.

Place: Barclays Global Investors, 345 Fremont

From BART: Get off at the Embarcadero station. Take the Beale St. exit. Heading away from the water on Market, come to Fremont. Turn left on Fremont; 45 Fremont is the big building halfway down the block.

Parking: There are several outdoor lots with cheap evening rates, all of them south of Market and within a few blocks of 45 Fremont. Look on Harrison and Fremont first. These lots usually have plenty of spaces after 7:00.

From Caltrain: Don't take Caltrain if you can avoid it. Trains run back from the City at 9:00, 10:00, and 11:59 only. If you must take Caltrain, catch the N Judah to Market, then follow the above directions-from-BART to get to 45 Fremont.

I hope to see you there.

-Blake