[thelist] Learning XML

[Kevin Stevens]

I bought a book to teach me XML ages ago and have just got around to reading
it. I, very naively, thought it would be a piece of cake, I'm 10 pages in
and I realise I am very wrong. I still want to have a go at learning it, but
because of the age of the book (maybe a couple of years) most of the links
to things I need don't work. So I guess I'm asking a couple of things...

1. The book says I need Java installed on my machine and refers to a "Java
Development Kit (JDK)" to be found at javasoft.com. I couldn't find this at
all, seems to be out of date, so does anyone know what has replaced it?
2. I would quite like an idiots guide to XML on the web as a second
reference. I have looked through Google and found several, but none really
suit my needs. Can anyone recommend any sites that they have found useful?

TIA

Kevin Stevens
kjs at ratking.co.uk