Exemplar is a program created to make it easier to work with XML. It began life as a program to generate the smallest possible parser for a given vocabulary of XML. While it still retains the capability to do this, it is now a more general program intended to support conversion of specifications of XML vocabularies (DTDs, Schemas, etc) into useful code.

Exemplar is designed to support plug-in moduless to implement input translators, output producers and user/application interfaces. This should make it easier to add features to Exemplar and/or integrate it with third-party products. This is described later in Overall Architecture.