Murata Makoto announced the availability of an English-language FAQ on RELAX, the REgular LAnguage description for XML. 'RELAX is much more modest' than XML Schema.

RELAX is still in development, and only the FAQ is currently available in English, though a tutorial is available in Japanese and may be translated soon. RELAX is based on hedge automaton theory.

In the section called "Will RELAX survive?", its creators are quite open that The success of a standard cannot be guarantteed by standard bodies.... Standards will survive only when they are widely implemented and adopted. To help implementation along, however, they are developing a Java processor for converting DTDs to RELAX as well as a C++ validator, both of which will be released as open source software under the GPL.

A project of the INSTAC XML SWG of Japan, RELAX is intended to become a Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) and possibly be submitted to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

For more information on alternative schema languages, you might try the articles below:

• New XML Schema language - Document Structure Definition - xmlhack.com
• Schematron: An Interview with Rick Jelliffe - xmlhack.com
• More resources for fast-growing Schematron - xmlhack.com
• The Schematron: An XML Structure Validation Language using Patterns in Trees - xmlhack.com
• Describing Your Data: DTDs and XML Schemas - XML.com