campbell@maynard.UUCP (03/28/87)
I'm looking for pointers to SGML info. Is SGML an ANSI standard?
ISO? CCITT? Where can I find documentation on it?
--
Larry Campbell The Boston Software Works, Inc.
Internet: campbell@maynard.BSW.COM 120 Fulton Street, Boston MA 02109
uucp: {alliant,think,wjh12}!maynard!campbell +1 617 367 6846ryoung@mprvaxa.UUCP (04/05/87)
In article <883@maynard.BSW.COM> campbell@maynard.UUCP (Larry Campbell) writes: >I'm looking for pointers to SGML info. Is SGML an ANSI standard? >ISO? CCITT? Where can I find documentation on it? >-- The Standard Generalized Markup Language is a protocol developed by the American Association of Publishers (AAP) to "provide an electronic interface between authors, publishers, and typesetters, so that keying in manuscripts only has to be done once, by the author." The SGML codes cover virtually any form a manuscript is intended to take; an English language manuscript, that is, for it is not intended to support French, German, or other languages. The AAP offers four manuals that explain the protocol in detail. The (brief) "Author's Guide to Electronic Manuscript Preparation and Markup" shows sample manuscripts with codes included. The others explain the full set of codes and tags, cover markup of mathematical formulae, and deal extensively with the markup of tabular material. The manuals cost $5 each or $15 for the set of four (plus $2.10 postage and handling); they may be ordered from the AAP, 2005 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington. D.C. 20036, Attention: Carol Risher. Or you can call (202)232-3335. Here in Canada, the Book and Periodical Development Council (BPDC) supports the AAP system and promotes its use. Robert Young Information Specialist, Microtel Pacific Research, Ltd.
yuri@sq.UUCP (04/08/87)
In article <883@maynard.BSW.COM> campbell@maynard.UUCP (Larry Campbell) writes > I'm looking for pointers to SGML info. Is SGML an ANSI standard? > ISO? CCITT? Where can I find documentation on it? SGML is ISO standard 8879. The best source of information is the group that has spearheaded the campaign for the creation of a Standard Generalized Markup Language, The Graphic Communications Association, 1730 North Lynn Street, Suite 604, Arlington, VA, 22209-2095. The GCA organizes workshops and conferences around the world which generally include an SGML component (MarkUp '87, May 13 to 15, Torremolinos, Spain, with a two-day hands-on workshop beforehand, May 11 and 12; TechDoc Eleventh, Aug. 18 to 20, San Francisco; others), and sells documentation defining the standard. You can easily obtain information on becoming a member. Later this month, a group of serious SGML proponents will be launching a new publication entitled TAG, the SGML Newsletter. You may subscribe (one year for $135, bimonthly moving to monthly) or request a free copy of Issue #1 by writing to TAG c/o BDS, Inc. 105A Carpenter Drive Sterling, Virginia 22170 Also of interest might be the Electronic Manuscript Special Interest Group Association of American Publishers attn: Carol Risher 2005 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington DC 20036 Tel: 202 232-3335 The AAP, working with a number of other groups, including the IEEE, the Council on Library Resources, American Society of Indexers, Library of Congress, American Chemical Society, American Institute of Physics, American Mathematical Society, Printing Industries of America, Association of American University Presses, and some 25 others, has created a publishing-specific implementation of SGML for book, manual and journal creation. That standard, known as the AAP standard, is currently undergoing the ANSI approval stages, and was recently the subject of a workshop at Microsoft's CD-ROM conference. (SGML, particularly the AAP standard, is the best way to store data on CD-ROM: format, device and formatting software independent.) _______________ SGML in spite of its growing presence as a hot topic in the area of document interchange and storage formats, is still a somewhat nebulous acronym. At the recent Seybold Seminars on Publishing at least six products - SoftQuad Publishing Software, Context, Intran, Interleaf, Omnipage and Texet - were described as "supporting SGML" or "SGML-like". Perhaps subscribers to this newsgroup would appreciate a brief introduction to a subject that need not be as complicated as people are making it. SGML is (to some degree) the joint creation of the Department of Defense and the GCA. First and foremost, it is a way of looking at and describing documents, and doing so by describing their structure in a way that is computer-independent, operating system independent and, most important, format independent. If I were to describe a chapter title in a format specific way, I might say, in sqtroff, for instance: .ps 42 \" size: 42 points .ffam BKL \" font family: Bookman light .ft I \" italic face .ce \" centered on the line This is a title In the style of SGML, I would say, simply: <chaptertitle> This is a title Elsewhere <chaptertitle> would be defined as having specific characteristics for each use to which the document is put. Note that SGML is NOT "Generic Coding": in Generic Coding, the "tags" can and generally do stand for specific formatting instructions, like macro-calls in most formatting languages. SGML tags, however, specify information about the structure of the document but absolutely nothing about its format: the binding of document elements to specific design specifications is done at a later stage of the publication process. For example, some readers may be reminded of the SCRIBE text formatter. SCRIBE is a "Generic Coding" system; its Basic Environment `tags' Center, Enumerate, FlushLeft, for example, each stand for a very specific (although reasonably device-independent) *format*. And its `Face Codes' like @i, @b, @r and so on are as format-specific as ditroff's analogous \fI, \fP and \fR. McGraw-Hill recently took a huge collection of SGML-encoded articles and produced a 16 volume Encyclopedia of Science and Technology and, simultaneously a CD-ROM containing the same materials and, simultaneously made the textual component available on-line via the Westlaw database. The same source files were used to create all three editions. This forward-looking project could not have taken place without an SGML approach. The Standard itself defines a set of rules for creating an SGML implementation. For instance, the Standard - it is an official ISO standard, by the way, and was officially adopted by the DOD in August, 1983 - says that the ELEMENTS are delimited by <angle brackets> and that each element will be closed with an end-tag identical except that it begins with a slash: </ELEMENT>. The Standard also establishes the idea of ENTITY REFERENCES, strings of characters to stand for longer strings (or logotypes, for instance) or for special or pi characters; and the rules for creating a DOCUMENT TYPE DEFINITION, an ASCII file which sets out the elements, their structural relationships and the entity references. Most of the current SGML software development is in the area of parsers, spurred by everyone's enthusiasm for DOD contracts. The idea is that someone encodes a file using a set of angle bracketed <TAGS>, teaches the parser a specific set of rules by feeding it a DOCUMENT TYPE DEFINITION, and then validates the file by running it through the parser. There are many parsers but, to the best of my knowledge, none that should yet be described as commercially available. Interleaf has signed up a parser produced by a Belgian firm called Sobemap. That is perhaps the most public of parsers. The best one that we've seen - and the one that seems to be the very first to actually comply fully with the requirements of the standard, was produced by Software Exoterica, based in Ottawa. (Much of the discussion about compliance has been complicated by an early release of a DRAFT ISO standard: the later, non-draft version radically differs from the Draft. A number of parser-makers have had to do a lot of unexpected work to upgrade.) I can recommend two groups as consultants for anyone who is serious about SGML: Aspen Systems Corporation attn: Sperling Martin 1600 Research Boulevard Rockville, MD 20850 Tel: 301 251-5356 (These were the consultants to the AAP project, the ones who, quite literally, defined that standard.) Software Exoterica attn: Elizabeth MacKenzie 2447 Kaladar Avenue Ottawa Canada K1V 8B9 Tel: 613 526-4701 (Exoterica is in the final stages of implementing a very large publishing system based on a military specification of SGML for the Canadian Department of Defense.) If you're in Europe, a good source of information is SGML Users' Group attn: Joan Smith, President National Computing Centre Oxford Road, Manchester M1 7ED United Kingdom Tel: 44 61 228 6333 The group's annual meeting will be held in conjunction with the Torremolinos MarkUp '87 Conference: May 14, 1987 2 to 4pm. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Yuri Rubinsky, President SoftQuad Inc. 720 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2T9 Tel: (416) 963-8337 (utzoo!sq!yuri)