The Theological Markup Language (ThML) is a "royalty-free" XML

XML

Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....

-based format created in 1998 by the Christian Classics Ethereal Library

Christian Classics Ethereal Library

The Christian Classics Ethereal Library is a digital library that provides free electronic copies of Christian scripture and literature texts....

 (CCEL) to create electronic theological texts. Other formats such as STEP

STEP Library

STEP is a standard file format used to distribute Biblical software from various publishers to consumers wanting integrated text and reference works. STEP was conceived in 1995 by Craig Rairdin of Parsons Technology and Jim VanDuzer of Loizeaux Brothers Publishers...

 and Logos Library System (LLS) were found unacceptable by CCEL as they are proprietary, prompting the creation of the new language. The ThML format borrowed elements from a somewhat similar format, the Text Encoding Initiative

Text Encoding Initiative

The Text Encoding Initiative is a text-centric community of practice in the academic field of digital humanities. The community runs a mailing list, meetings and conference series, and maintains a technical standard, a wiki and a toolset....

 (TEI).

, CCEL has 650 documents in this format. The advantage of using an XML-based format is that a ThML text can be converted into HTML

HTML

HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....

 by using an XSLT

XSLT

XSLT is a declarative, XML-based language used for the transformation of XML documents. The original document is not changed; rather, a new document is created based on the content of an existing one. The new document may be serialized by the processor in standard XML syntax or in another format,...

 stylesheet. Also, conversion to PDF and RTF

Rich Text Format

The Rich Text Format is a proprietary document file format with published specification developed by Microsoft Corporation since 1987 for Microsoft products and for cross-platform document interchange....

 can be done with standard XML conversion tools.

The last Document Type Definition

Document Type Definition

Document Type Definition is a set of markup declarations that define a document type for SGML-family markup languages...

 of the format – version 1.04 – was released on January 20, 2003.

Software

• The SWORD Project
  The Sword Project
  The SWORD Project is the CrossWire Bible Society's free Bible software project. Its purpose is to create cross-platform open source tools—covered by the GNU General Public License—that allow programmers and Bible societies to write new Bible software more quickly and easily.-Overview:The core of...
  
   — Bible study software project that supports most operating systems
  Operating system
  An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
  
  , numerous PDA
  PDA
  A PDA is most commonly a Personal digital assistant, also known as a Personal data assistant, a mobile electronic device.PDA may also refer to:In science, medicine and technology:...
  
   handhelds, and web services.

See also

• Open Scripture Information Standard
  Open Scripture Information Standard
  Open Scripture Information Standard is an XML application , that defines tags for marking up Bibles, theological commentaries, and other related literature....
  
  
• Go Bible
  Go Bible
  Go Bible is a free Bible viewer application for Java mobile phones . It was developed by Jolon Faichney in Surf City, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, with help from several other people who assisted in making versions for other languages and translations...
  
   application for Java mobile phones
• Zefania XML
  Zefania XML
  Zefania XML Bible markup language is an XML-based language for the description of Biblical texts. This allows applications that understand XML, to read and process Bible texts. Zefania XML is available under the GNU General Public License.- External links :...
  
   Bible Markup Language

External links

• Theological Markup Language webpage
• GoBible – electronic Bible application for mobile phone
  Mobile phone
  A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
  
  s created using ThML and OSIS
• General Bible Format Tagging Specification
• XSEM: XML Scripture Encoding Model
• Bible Translators’ Software Resources