Xymbol Announces 1.0 Release of XML::Comma Platform

1 February 2002
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allAfrica.com
press release

Washington, DC — Washington, DC -- Xymbol, a leading provider of internet application development services created by AllAfrica Global Media, today announced the 1.0 release of its flagship XML::Comma platform.

XML::Comma is a full tool-kit for internet programmers, providing a rich API and an extensive set of facilities that speed the development of information-heavy, network-centric, web-enabled systems. Comma's abstraction layer bridges the tricky double divide between XML documents, program objects and relational database tables.

XML::Comma is distributed as open source software under the GNU General Public License, and has been designed to work hand-in-glove with other important open source tools such as the Apache web server, the HTML::Mason templating environment, and the Linux operating system. Comma's support for relational databases is modular and extensible; both of the leading open source RDBMS platforms -- MySQL and PostgreSQL -- are supported.

The 1.0 release of XML::Comma coincides with the debut of www.democrats.org, the Democratic National Committee's expanded website. The DNC chose XML::Comma as the platform for Chairman Terry McAuliffe's new technology initiative -- an integrated development project designed to extend the reach and effectiveness of the party's communications infrastructure. The new www.democrats.org site serves dynamic, issues-oriented content to a national audience, and enables the Democratic Party to connect with its members in immediate, targeted, and customizable ways.

About XML::Comma

As an application development platform, XML::Comma offers programmers a foundation upon which to build complex, dynamic business logic components. Comma's major strength is in supporting web development, but modern web systems require back-end tools that integrate with legacy, intranet and desktop applications and interfaces, and XML::Comma was designed with this interoperability in mind. Comma modules can be embedded inside the Apache web server, but are equally at home supporting autonomous server-side processes, providing data access and modelling for GUI applications, or running in on-demand utility contexts.

XML::Comma's developer-friendly architecture treats XML documents as members of structured collections, and allows systems designers to define document types using a mixture of XML and Perl. The document "life-cycle" is completely controlled by calls into the Perl API, and common functionality can be packaged into Perl hooks that are embedded directly into document definitions. Support is provided for multi-definition "includes" and dynamic compilation of embedded subroutines, and the system can be extended in either Perl or C through a simple, flexible interface.

Comma manages the low-level transformation of data into structured information, exporting an API that handles much of the detail work inherent in creating, categorizing, sorting, searching, and storing chunks of data. The platform is available for download from http://xymbollab.com.

About Xymbol

Xymbol is a technology services provider, offering companies, organizations and institutions access to highly-customized, efficient, cost-effective development and deployment of internet-based systems and applications. Xymbol is committed to providing solutions that boast very low total costs of ownership. A key factor in achieving this low TCO is Xymbol's effective use of leading open source software, such as the Linux operating system and the Apache web server. Xymbol's own application development platform, XML::Comma, is freely available under the GNU General Public License.

Xymbol is a division of AllAfrica Global Media, a technology company based in Washington, DC, with offices in five countries. The XML::Comma platform was developed to power AllAfrica's media aggregation and syndication business. AllAfrica's website, http://allafrica.com, hosts content from more than 100 publishers, and AllAfrica's commercial distribution services feed news to hundreds of clients worldwide. In addition, some 400 websites depend on the free "AllAfrica Headlines" service, which uses JavaScript widgets to pull news stories from an XML::Comma server.

Xymbol was established in January 2001 by the AllAfrica board of directors and is managed by professionals with more than 20 collective years of web-development experience.

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