Muddy point

The whole XML thing is muddy to me.  I start out understanding it--basic knowledge.  I see the importance of it versus HTML and DTD (which also confused me).  I understood how the start tags and end tags were used.  To me the more points they add--the more computer lingo (abbreviations) that are inserted in the articles, the more confusing it got.  The second article (Survey XML Standards) was were i really got lost.  I started clicking on the hyperlinks--learned more but actually felt i learned less.  Aside from what XML is and does in a document--how much of the other items, xml frost, point, etc is needed in order to have a basic understanding of XML?