XML & J++

[tota]

I intend to generate a speech application. I found some speech engin available with microsoft and Sun such as JSAPI,JSML. I am not sure what else I need to get or learn? Also where to learn XML programming?
microsoft recommended visual J++ because of XML is the future of internet programming, I also found there is a version XML Pro when I did some internet search.What do you recommend?
your help is appreciated.
tota