nurk@eta.unix.ETA.COM (Tom Nurkkala) (02/09/89)
Where can I get information on SGML? An electronic (anon FTP) source would be great. Thanks. -- Tom Nurkkala nurk@zwingli.unix.eta.com Software Engineer ETA Systems, Inc. 1450 Energy Park Drive "My brain is just a BUNDLE of nerves." St. Paul, MN 55108 612/642-8390
edb@io.UUCP (Ed Blachman x4420) (02/10/89)
In article <2367@zwingli.unix.ETA.COM> nurk@eta.unix.ETA.COM (Tom Nurkkala) writes: >Where can I get information on SGML? An electronic (anon FTP) source would >be great. > I'm not sure about electronic sources of info on SGML, but then "information on SGML" is pretty vague. Here's a cut at a 0th-level intro to SGML. SGML stands for Standard Generalized Markup Language. It is an ISO standard that describes rules for writing a family of structure and content oriented markup languages. Its facilities lend themselves to writing languages that describe documents as relatively deeply nested trees of logical constructs, with text and other data at the leaves of the tree. These constructs (ele- ments in the prevailing jargon) can be festooned with attributes, whose values can be of a number of different types. SGML has been kicking around for a number of years (the first draft of the spec *I* ever saw was a 1983 draft, and it was substantially similar to the now-official ISO 8879 standard), but until recently it received lip service and little more from most vendors. This is changing as Big Institutions (notably the DoD in the US, through its CALS initiative, but also a lot of European agencies and corporations) are beginning to insist on it. SGML is not intended to deal with formatting and presentation issues. Those lie in the domains of two companion standards that are in the works (and still pretty incomplete): DSSSL (I forget what it stands for, but it will to tie elements and attributes to presentation oriented characteristics like fonts and page models) and SPDL (Standard Page Description Language). Reading list: There is a new book out on SGML which has the reputation at least of being the most accessible book on the topic yet published: SGML: an author's guide to the Standard Generalized Markup Language Martin Bryan Addison-Wesley (first), 1988 (trade pb, ISBN: 0-201-17535-5, cost?) Beyond that, there's the ISO spec itself (pretty rough going) and random magazine articles of varying quality. The best one I've seen was called "An SGML Tutorial" by John Bottoms; it appeared in the Fall '88 newsletter of the Boston Computer Society CD-ROM Sig, slightly modified from a version that had appeared as "A Meta-Language Tutorial" in Electronic Publishing Business Newsletter. Another resource is the SGML Users' Group: SGML Users' Group Pindar Infotek Ltd 11 Melrose Yard Walmgate York. YO1 2XF United Kingdom -- good luck! >-- >Tom Nurkkala nurk@zwingli.unix.eta.com > Software Engineer > ETA Systems, Inc. > 1450 Energy Park Drive "My brain is just a BUNDLE of nerves." > St. Paul, MN 55108 > 612/642-8390 Ed Blachman ...!mit-eddie!ileaf!edb (or) edb@ileaf.com Software Engineer Interleaf 10 Canal Park Cambridge, MA 02178 617-577-9813 x4420