Re: SGML - Tell me about it.

Subject: Re: SGML - Tell me about it.
From: Elaine M Brennan <ELAINE -at- BROWNVM -dot- BITNET>
Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1993 14:54:45 EDT

On Thu, 23 Sep 1993 18:12:33 GMT Thomas Krueger said:

>I would like some information about this new wunderkind, SGML. In the STC
>Journal, there were a lot of articles on it, and some sample code. I was
>shocked, amazed, incredulous to find so many articles commenting on how new
>and exciting and wonderful this thing is... when all it is, as far as I can
>tell, is a rehash of roff and LaTeX, in various ways. Does anyone have
>experience with it, and with roff or LaTeX, and can tell me if that's so?

No, it's not so.

>* What documentation exists for SGML?

Start with the SGML Handbook, by Charles Goldfarb (Oxford University
Press, 1990). ISBN 0198537379.

If you have access to netnews, read comp.text.sgml. If you don't
have access to netnews, at least get and read its FAQ (ftp to
rtfm.mit.edu).

>* What does it currently run on?

Adjust your framework. SGML is *not* a processing language. SGML is
a metalanguage, and as such can be processed and run on any operating
system. (This does, of course, assume that programs to read and
process SGML-encoded documents have been written for that operating
system). It also means that the same information can be used by other
programs and other operating systems with relatively little transduction.

SGML is a *descriptive* tagging system, which means that it identifies
document parts by what they are, rather than by how they might be
formatted. The formatting information can be stored separately, and a
given document can be displayed or printed in multiple ways, without
ever compromising the intellectual integrity of the document itself.
LaTeX, on the other hand, is a page-layout descriptive language.

>* Who is currently supporting it?

Are you asking what programs can read or process an SGML document
instance? Or are you asking what corporations or government agencies
are incorporating SGML-conformance into their document requirements?

Elaine Brennan
Assistant Director
Women Writers Project
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
Elaine_Brennan -at- Brown -dot- edu


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