If you are new to RELAX, please consider RELAX NG of OASIS. It is a schema language created by unifying RELAX Core and TREX.

RELAX (Regular Language description for XML)

Tired of complicated specifications? You just RELAX !

In May 2001, RELAX Core has been approved as an ISO/IEC Technical Report.

ISO/IEC DTR 22250-1, Document Description and Processing Languages -- Regular Language Description for XML (RELAX) -- Part 1: RELAX Core, 2000 October

$Id: index.html 1.43 2002/04/03 14:42:46 makoto Exp $

Prepared by: MURATA Makoto (FAMILY Given)

What's New

• RELAX Core (ISO/IEC TR 22250-1) has been approved by the ISO/CS ballot. The final text will be prepared in an upcoming meeting for comment disposition in August 2001.
• Added a link to the RELAX Core specification in English, and links to articles at xmlhack. (2001/3/13)
• Reference model of "Divide and Validate" (in Japanese) (2001/3/11)
• Prototypical implementation of "Divide and Validate". (2001/3/7)
• A Java API for invoking RELAX Verifiers. (2001/3/4)
• RELAX Verifier for Java has been updated. (2001/2/27)
• Dublin Core [The Bath Profile] in RELAX is added. (2001/1/5)
• Rewrite of XML Signature Syntax in RELAX is now based on the Candidate Recommendation of XML Signature Syntax and Processing (2001/1/5)
• Disclosed newer versions of relaxCore.rlx and datatypes.rlx (2000/12/27)
• The cover page of the ISO specification says the document is a DIS, only because there are no cover sheets for fast-track DTRs (2000/12/27)
• ISO/IEC published RELAX Core as DIS 22250-1(2000/11/17)
• "HOW TO RELAX" for Netscape 4.7 on Linux (2000/11/3)
• Slightly revised "HOW TO RELAX" (2000/11/3)

1. Introductory

• RELAX FAQ (Japanese, English)
• Tutorial: HOW TO RELAX
  • Japanese
    • HTML 4.0 (single file version)
    • HTML 4.0 (single file version for Netscape 4.7 on Linux)
    • HTML 4.0 (multiple file version)
    • HTML 3.2 (single file version)
    • HTML 3.2 (multiple file version)
    • PDF
    • PostScript
    • dvi
  • English
    • HTML 4.0 (single file version)
    • HTML 4.0 (single file version for Netscape 4.7 on Linux)
    • HTML 4.0 (multiple file version)
    • HTML 3.2 (single file version)
    • HTML 3.2 (multiple file version)
    • PDF
    • PostScript
    • dvi
• Relaxer talk at Extreme Markup Language 2000 ( English)
• Relaxer tutorial at Extreme Markup Language 2000 ( English)
• Validating XML with RELAX, J. David Eisenberg
• Learning to RELAX, J. David Eisenberg
• RELAX quick reference, J. David Eisenberg
• Regular Hedge Language (Japanese, English)

2. Articles about RELAX

• Dividing documents with RELAX, new Relaxer, Simon St. Laurent, xmlhack
• RELAX data extensions, XHTML Basic implementation, Simon St. Laurent, xmlhack
• RELAX Namespace discussion, implementation, Simon St. Laurent, xmlhack
• Validating XML: a pretty complete primer, J. David Eisenberg
• Developers' Day at XML 2000, Edd Dumbill, XML.COM
• English translation of RELAX spec available, Simon St. Laurent, xmlhack
• RELAX Core to ISO; Relaxer updated, Simon St. Laurent, xmlhack
• Relaxer generates Java classes from RELAX, Simon St. Laurent, xmlhack
• RELAX activity continues to bubble , Simon St. Laurent, xmlhack
• New mailing list for RELAX , Simon St. Laurent, xmlhack
• RELAX validation in Java , Simon St. Laurent, xmlhack
• RELAX gets noticed, Simon St. Laurent, xmlhack
• RELAX schemas coming soon, Simon St. Laurent, xmlhack
• XML Schemas: Last Word on Last Call, Liora Alschuler, XML.COM
• Schemas: RELAX and Enjoy!, Liora Alschuler, Seybold Report
• Relax, and Take it Easy, Simon St. Laurent, XML.COM
• Breaking news in XML, Eric Armstrong, Java World

3. Specification

• DTD for RELAX Core (main and datatypes [copied from XML Schema Part 2])
• Module for RELAX Core (main and datatypes)
• RELAX Core specification ( Japanese [ errata], English [pdf])
• RELAX Namespace specification ( Japanese, Englsih (in preparation))
• Reference model of "Divide and Validate" (Japanese, English (in prepartaion))

4. Examples

• XML Spec DTD documentation
  1. original
  2. rewrite in RELAX
• XML Signature Syntax (documentation)
  1. original DTD
  2. original XML schema
  3. rewrite in RELAX
• Dublin Core [The Bath Profile] (documentation)
  1. original
  2. rewrite in RELAX
• Simplified DocBk XML V3.1.7.1 (documentation)
  1. original
  2. rewrite in RELAX

5. Free Software

• DTD2RELAX converter (Japanese, English)
• Prototypical implementation of "Divide and Validate"
• RELAX verifier for Java
• A Java API for invoking RELAX verifiers
• Relaxer: Generating Java classes from RELAX grammars (Japanese, English)
• Relaxer Examples (Japanese, English)
• PIXY System 2 (which uses RELAX/Relaxer) (Japanese, English)
• VBRELAX (RELAX verifier in Visual Basic) (Japanese, English)
• RELAX2DTD for XSLT
• RELAX verifier in C++
• RELAX verifier for XSLT
• On-line tutorial called RELAX Workshop (needs VBRELAX and Windows Scripting Engine/5.0 or later) (Japanese and English)
• viewRELAX (an interactive viewer of RELAX modules) (requires Internet Explorer/5.0 or later, Microsoft Scripting Runtime/5.0 or later, and MSXML/1.0 or later)
• Relax Transformations (RelaxT) (Japanese)

6. Commercial Software

XML Authority of Extensibility supports export in RELAX Core.

7. Mailing lists

• Mailing list for RELAX users in Japanese
• Mailing list for RELAX standardization in Japanese
• Mailing list for RELAX developers in English

8. Schedule

• 2000 March: RELAX Core published as JIS TR.
• 2000 September: Officially decided to submit RELAX Core to the fast track procedure of ISO.
• 2000 October: Submission of RELAX Core to ISO.
• 2000 December: the initial design of RELAX Namespace has been disclosed to the mailing list
• 2001 April: RELAX Namespace is expected to be approved as JIS TR.
• 2001 June: RELAX Namespace is expected to be submitted to ISO/IEC.

9. Links to relevant standard organizations

• Information Technology Research and Standardization Center(INSTAC)
• Japanese Standards Association (JSA)