Hi Angela,
XML is an open standard Architecture like HTML. Basically it is a Markup language like HTML. But in XML u can do so many things like creating ur own tags. The main advantage is that, u will make the content more meaning ful in XML. For eg. if the address is typed in HTML as <p> Address line1 , Address Line2, Coimbatore , 23232</P> , u dont know which is phone number and which is pincode. But in XML it will be
<address>
<line1> Address line1</line1>
<line2>Address line2</line2>
<pincode>23232</pincode>
</address>
Here everthing is more clear and meaningful, which can help u in more specific search also.
JSP is different from XML in the way of interpretation itself. XML uses an XML parses to interpret the XML code, whereas the JSP codes are interpreted to
servlet and the servlet Engine takes care of rest.
Arun
SCJP