James Clark (programmer)
{{for multi|the entrepreneur and computer scientist born in 1944|James H. Clark|other people named James Clark|James Clark (disambiguation){{!}}James Clark}}
{{Primary sources|date=January 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2018}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name = James Clark
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = James Jackson Clark
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1964|02|23}}
| birth_place = London, England
| death_date =
| death_place =
| nationality =
| education = Charterhouse School
| alma_mater = University of Oxford (BA)
| other_names =
| occupation =
| years_active =
| known_for = {{ubl|
|XSLT
|TREX
}}
| notable_works =
| spouse = Joy Chanpen
| partner =
| children = 1
| mother =
| father =
| relatives = {{ubl|Robert Sainsbury (maternal grandfather)|David Sainsbury (maternal uncle)}}
| family = Sainsbury family
| module = {{Infobox scientist |embed=yes
| fields = {{ubl|XML|Open-source software}}
| workplaces = Thai Open Source Software Center
SIPA
WSO2{{Cite web|url=https://wso2.com/about/board/|website=wso2.com|title=WSO2 Team|author=Anon|year=2020}}
}}
| website = {{Official URL}}
}}
James Clark (born ) is a software engineer and creator of various open-source software including groff, expat and several XML specifications.{{cite web|url=http://www.jclark.com/bio.htm|title=James Clark Biography|first=James|last=Clark|year=2020|website=jclark.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200724032845/http://www.jclark.com/bio.htm|archive-date=2020-07-24}}{{Cite web|url=https://blog.jclark.com/|title=James Clark's Random Thoughts|first=James|last=Clark|website=blog.jclark.com|year=2020}}{{Cite interview |last=Clark |first=James |interviewer-last=Kim |interviewer-first=Eugene Eric |url=https://www.drdobbs.com/a-triumph-of-simplicity-james-clark-on-m/184404686 |title=A Triumph of Simplicity: James Clark on Markup Languages and XML |date=2001-07-01 |df=dmy |work=Dr. Dobb's Journal |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020224025029/http://www.ddj.com/documents/s=862/ddj0107e/ |archive-date=24 February 2002}}{{twitter}}
Education and early life
Clark was born in London and educated at Charterhouse School and Merton College, Oxford where he studied Mathematics and Philosophy.
Career
=Work on XML =
Clark served as technical lead of the working group that developed XML—notably contributing the self-closing, empty element tag syntax, and the name XML. His contributions to XML are cited in dozens of books on the subject.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}} Clark is the author or co-author of a number of influential specifications and implementations, including:
- DSSSL: An SGML transformation and styling language.
- Expat: An open-source XML parser.
- XSLT: XSL Transformations, a part of the XSL family. He was the editor of the XSLT 1.0 specification.
- XPath: Path language for addressing XML documents; used by XSLT but also as a free-standing language. He was the editor of the XPath 1.0 specification.
- TREX: Tree regular experessions for XML (TREX) is a schema language for XML.{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=Christopher A. |last2=Drake |first2=Fred L. |last3=Drake |first3=Fred L. Jr. |title=Python and XML |date=2002 |publisher="O'Reilly Media, Inc." |isbn=9780596001285 |page=21 |language=en}} TREX has been merged with RELAX to create RELAX NG.{{cite web |last1=Cover |first1=Robin |title=Tree Regular Expressions for XML (TREX) |url=http://xml.coverpages.org/trex.html |website=xml.coverpages.org |access-date=6 March 2019}}
- RELAX NG: an XML Schema language, with both an explicit XML syntax and a compact syntax. Clark was critical of the XML Schema (W3C) language (also known as XSD){{cite web|title=Schema Wars: XML Schema vs. RELAX NG|url=http://webreference.com/xml/column59/index-2.html|access-date=11 May 2019|website=webreference.com|archive-date=4 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190304043049/http://webreference.com/xml/column59/index-2.html|url-status=dead}} and developed RELAX NG in response
- Jing: An implementation of RELAX NG.{{Cite web|url=https://relaxng.org/jclark/jing.html|title=Jing|website=relaxng.org}}
- Clark Notation: A way to express an XML Name in a compact way{{cite web|first=James|last=Clark|title=XML Namespaces|url=http://www.jclark.com/xml/xmlns.htm|website=jclark.com|access-date=17 September 2015}}
- Ballerina: Ballerina is an open source general-purpose programming language for application programmers.
Clark is listed as a member of the working group that developed the Java Stream processing API for XML (StAX) JSR 173 at the JCP.{{Cite web|url=https://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=173|title=The Java Community Process(SM) Program - JSRs: Java Specification Requests - detail JSR# 173|website=jcp.org}}
= Software Industry Promotion Agency (SIPA)=
From until late , Clark worked for Thailand's Software Industry Promotion Agency (SIPA), to promote open source technologies and open standards in the country. This work included pushing the Thai localization of OpenOffice.org office suite and the Mozilla Firefox web browser, along with other open source software packages.
Other projects at SIPA include:
- Chantra: An open source Thai project with programs for Windows, like the OpenCD project.
- Suriyan GNU/Linux: A user-friendly "instant server" system for small and medium-sized companies{{Cite web|url=http://www.suriyan.org/|title=Default OaO Sedo Frameset|website=suriyan.org}} not to be confused with SIPA's new, unrelated project with a similar name, Suriyan Linux Live CD.{{Cite web|url=http://suriyan.in.th/|title=Suriyan Linux Live CD|date=11 February 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080211194451/http://suriyan.in.th/|archive-date=11 February 2008}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, James}}
Category:People educated at Charterhouse School
Category:Alumni of Merton College, Oxford
Category:Free software programmers
Category:British computer programmers
Category:World Wide Web Consortium
Category:British expatriates in Thailand
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