\label{Authoring_XML_Intro}

LON-CAPA uses a syntax similar to XML and HTML.
Here are some basic style guides if you do not know the syntax:
%NOTE: the _ cannot be copy-pasted from the PDF, it would require using \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\begin{description}
\item[XML] \texttt{http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml\_syntax.asp}
\item[HTML] \texttt{http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5\_syntax.asp}
\end{description}

Compared to the XML syntax, the LON-CAPA language does not require a prolog at the beginning, and does not require encoding special characters within script elements.

Compared to the HTML syntax, the LON-CAPA language does not require a DOCTYPE, but requires closing all elements. Problem documents do not use the html and body tags. Aside from that, most HTML elements can be used in LON-CAPA documents.

LON-CAPA uses a very simple subset of the XML syntax and there is a lot you do
\emph{not} need to know, including but not limited to: CDATA, DTDs,
namespaces, and stylesheets. If you search for XML resources on the
Internet yourself, you do not need to read about those things to learn
how LON-CAPA uses XML/HTML for problems.