What does the suffix ".lml" mean?

See also: What does ".lml" mean? How are cookies used? Tools used

A '.lml' suffix means the page is generated from a piece of Limitless Mark-up Language (LML).

LML is a set of SGML-compliant extensions to HTML that add support for programming, database and file access, sessions, and a whole bunch of related things that are needed when building a dynamic web site. It's designed to be simple enough for end-users to understand, so that they can perform common tasks easily in their site's pages without the need for a programmer.

For example, they can process forms, send e-mail and save information in log files without knowing anything about session management, query string processing, browser feature detection and spider control, all of which LML handles automatically. This avoids the need for end-users to learn a full-fledged programming language grafted on top of the HTML in the web pages for many routine dynamic web site tasks.

While LML also includes the usual programming constructs for more advanced uses, as well as temporary and persistent variables and many other useful features, it specifically does not try to be a general-purpose programming language in its own right. There are plenty of good languages already available on Unix systems that LML is able to call securely when needed, to solve complicated or unusual problems.

LML normally runs as an Apache module on Unix-based systems, communicates efficiently with relational databases, and incorporates a variety of performance and security features in the Unix tradition.

LML was invented at Limitless in 1996, at a time when there were no practical alternatives for building dynamic, database-backed web sites, and Limitless continues to extend and maintain it.

Every now and then, a feature we suggest gets added, which is one of the attractions of using it for our own site, along with access to the source code, and the ability to sit on the prime maintainer's desk when we have a problem.

Major LML sites include Carsource and the award-winning Berry Bros. & Rudd.

More information on LML is available from Limitless.

Why not use something standard?

As is often said: "the wonderful thing about standards it that there are so many to choose from." We use LML for our own site, as opposed to, say, JSP or PHP, because we're very familiar with it, because it's been well-tried over several years without significant problems, and because we have access to both the source and the principal maintainer, and so can have it fixed or enhanced fairly easily.

This doesn't mean that we don't know anything else; we expect to work with mixtures of new and old technologies on a routine basis.

For example,

• we're currently doing JSP, Java and XML-based development in a Linux environment
• we built a whole online system in perl and Illustra
• we wrote a distributed internet-based system in C and C++ that bridged Unix and Windows

However, where we have a choice, we do favour and recommend tools and environments that aren't in constant flux, and that have been around long enough to be debugged and proven, and for this site, LML on Unix fits that bill.

Ultimately, we understand how to design and build systems independently of the underlying technologies, we know when and how to invent new ones when the situation demands it, and we know when to recognise that other experts would be a better choice than us.