== Introduction ==
This is an introductory text to XML, the extensible markup language used for our texts. 

There is also the [http://www.w3.org/TR/xml/ W3C Recommendation].

== Basic facts about XML ==
 * An XML document is a plain text file, preferably in Unicode encoding
 * The structure is made up out of nested elements, like a matroshka.
  {{{
   <root>
      <nestedElement>With content</nestedElement>
      <anotherElement with="attribute" another='one'>Elements can have attributes </emptyTag>, as well</anotherElement>
      <!-- I am a comment <hidden>everything here is</hidden> ignored -->
      <question>did we already talk about &amp; entities?</question>
   </root>
   }}}
   As with a matroshka, also in XML, you cannot put half a puppet into the bigger puppet: they have to be properly nested.
 ** Some characters are forbidden, they have to be escaped:
    - {{{<}}}: {{{&lt;}}}
    - {{{>}}}: {{{&gt;}}}
    - {{{&}}}: {{{&amp;}}}
    To a lesser extent, namely only in attribute values
    - {{{"}}}: {{{&quot;}}}
    - {{{'}}}: {{{&apos;}}}