Introduction

Welcome to the home page for the Spoon River Markup Language (SRML). The SRML is an invaluable tool for all of your modern business needs, including e-commerce, B2B, C2B, E2E, and the latest quasi-Bloesenblatt requirements as dictated by ISO-9007 documentation. Below you will find all the information needed to get your organization up to speed in its incorporation of the SRML. As you have probably heard, enterprises that don't "roll with the punches" will soon be left behind. This situation is no different for the SRML.

By now you are already aware of the importance in utilizing the SRML properly. You may have even begun "brainstorming" for solutions that effectively leverage the power of SRML to fit the framework of your own company's strategy. A full and correct integration of the SRML with any existing system requires some expertise, and we believe there is no better place to go than the source. As creators, implmentors, utilizers, and maintainers of the Spoon River Markup Language Specification, we are certain that you won't be disappointed with this resource page.

Background

The SRML is a specification for transferring information related to or containing text from Edgar Lee Masters's Spoon River Anthology. The volume is comprised of several hundred poems, each an epitaph for a fictional character buried in the fictional graveyard of the fictional town of Spoon River, Illinois. These poems always contain some reflective, life-learned wisdom, and often they refer to other characters in the town, some of which may also be buried, and thus have their own poem. How to make sense of this tangled web?

Solution

The Spoon River Markup Language alleviates the pains of handling MAss CHaracter InterDependency (MACHID, pronounced "ma-SHEED") by introducing rules by which characters may refer to one another, and rigorously maintaining an order and correct titlage to each poem. These rules are governed by the Specification, which utilizes the eXtensible Markup Language (XML). The rules themselves are given using a document type definition (DTD).

The Anthology

The Spoon River Anthology is a freely downloadable XML file.

Example

Here is a Java archive that converts the Anthology to a single HTML file, with anchored links throughout. To run this example, simply type

java -jar srml_example.jar <anthology-xml-file>

at a command prompt. This example requires installation of the Xerces XML Parser. All source code is properly documented to Javadoc specifications. Here is the generated documentation.

Conclusion

As you have seen, the Spoon River Markup Language is a rich technology, literally bursting with application. Bursting. Please check back often, as we are constantly updating the specification. Having the latest version of the SRML is the best way to ensure that your business won't be left behind.