[comp.text] SGML parser wanted

ace@philtis.UUCP (TIS) (03/26/88)

We would like to obtain a conforming SGML parser. This parser is needed for 
a data base publishing system which uses TeX as the main text formatter.

Remarks:

  - The parser should run under VAX/VMS
  - A callable interface would be most appropriate
  - Both commercial and public domain software would be welcome
  
  
-- 
Alfred Elkerbout, Philips International
Components Division, Department ISA-TIS
Building BC-1, PO Box 218, 5600 MD Eindhoven, The Netherlands
UUCP: ...mcvax!philmds!philtis!ace      PHONE: +31 040 722588

jos@cs.vu.nl (03/30/88)

> We would like to obtain a conforming SGML parser.

At the free University Amsterdam, the Netherlands,
we have developed an SGML parser.
This parser is called the Amsterdam SGML Parser.
It is a conforming and validating parser for basic SGML.

Presently, the Amsterdam SGML Parser is used by 
a large Dutch publishing company, Elsevier Science Publishers.
It is also bought by another Dutch publisher, Wolters-Kluwer,
who are going to use it shortly.

The parser is developed under SUN/Unix system 4.2 and is
installed and running under VAX/VMS at Elsevier Science Publishers.
It is written in C and uses only standard C constructs as
described in Kernighan and Ritchie (The C Programming language).
Therefore it should not be too difficult to port to another machine.
The port to VMS took about a day, mainly because of deficiencies
in the C compiler used.

If you want more information about the parser, please mail us.

We have used the parser to produce the technical documentation of
the Amsterdam SGML Parser.
This was done with a preliminary backend for Troff.
We are working on a simple general backend for the parser.
This backend will allow the user to specify a substituting text
for each starttag and its attributes and for each endtag in the document.
With this backend an SGML-document can easily be converted to,
for instance, a Troff/TEX-document.
This backend should be ready in a couple of weeks.

			Jos Warmer       Sylvia van Egmond
			jos@cs.vu.nl     sylvia@cs.vu.nl

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Faculteit Wiskunde en Informatica
Boelelaan 1081
1081 HV Amsterdam
The Netherlands

local telephone: 020-548.5527
international telephone: (country number) 20-548.5527