siegman@sierra.STANFORD.EDU (siegman) (08/07/90)
I'm involved in a planning effort exploring computerized
manuscript preparation/typesetting packages for technical manuscripts
for professional journals, professional societies, book manuscripts,
and so on. Prime candidates seem to be TeX and SGML (or is it SMGL?),
which I gather is IBM's (?) "Standard Graphics Markup Language" (?).
It's been claimed that SGML is much more widely used "commercially" or
in "commercial publishing" than is TeX.
Anyone familiar with the relative status of TeX and SMGL for
"commercial" or "professional" publishing, especially of scholarly or
technical manuscripts? In particular:
1) Any journals or publishers that accept author-prepared manuscripts
on-line, or via magnetic media, in TeX or in SGML?
2) Any available versions of SGML that will run (i.e., produce typeset
output and/or on-screen previewing) on the Mac, or IBM PCs?
3) Anyone with experience and comments on producing _math_ (typeset
equations) with SGML? Does it have anywhere near the capabilities and
ease of use of TeX?
I guess my preference shows through even in the questions above, but
I'd appreciate information on both systems.
--siegman@sierra.stanford.edu (Internet)
--RW.AAP@STANFORD (Bitnet)
domo@tsa.co.uk (Dominic Dunlop) (08/07/90)
In article <194@sierra.STANFORD.EDU> siegman@sierra.STANFORD.EDU (siegman) writes: > I'm involved in a planning effort exploring computerized > manuscript preparation/typesetting packages for technical manuscripts > for professional journals, professional societies, book manuscripts, > and so on. Prime candidates seem to be TeX and SGML (or is it SMGL?), > which I gather is IBM's (?) "Standard Graphics Markup Language" (?). > It's been claimed that SGML is much more widely used "commercially" or > in "commercial publishing" than is TeX. Well, I'd take that with a pinch of salt. It's certainly true that its proponents would _like_ it to be more widely used, and it is indeed becoming more... well, is ``popular'' the word? Anyway, more and more people are finding that they have a reason to use it. Standard Generalized Markup language is in fact an international standard -- ISO 8879:1986. As such (surprise, surprise) it's used in the production of international standards. I have reason to know this because there has been a bit of back-chat from the ISO central secretariat in Geneva about good (?) ole troff being used to produce the POSIX standards, in which I am somewhat involved. SGML is also being used in a number of government-sponsored projects around the world (the Canadians, I believe, are pretty hot on it) and in (usally biggish) business, where it can be a component in Electronic Document Interchange (EDI) schemes. There are two other related ISO standards: 9069:1988 -- SGML support facilities: SGML Document Interchange Format (SDIF); and technical report 9753:1988 -- SGML suport facilities: Techniques for using SGML. All this is utter hear-say: I am not a user. And, after all that, no, I don't know of a Mac implementation. -- Dominic Dunlop
steffo@gmdzi.UUCP (Stefan Weber) (08/08/90)
The application you are looking 4 is: SoftQuad Author/Editor. Author/Editor is a comfortable SGML-Editor, which allows you to hide tags, to display headings etc. in bold-face (or any other style). The package includes also a tool to generate your own rules-files. SoftQuad's address is: SoftQuad, Inc. 720 Spadina Av. Toronto, Canada M5S2T9 steffo! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steffo Weber, GMD St. Augustin, W-Germany e-mail: steffo@gmdzi.UUCP |Finish is nich' Finnisch, sondern Englisch ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
dak@sq.sq.com (David A Keldsen) (08/09/90)
domo@tsa.co.uk (Dominic Dunlop) writes: >In article <194@sierra.STANFORD.EDU> siegman@sierra.STANFORD.EDU >(siegman) writes: >> [query about SGML] > [some answers, followed by:] >All this is utter hear-say: I am not a user. And, after all that, no, I >don't know of a Mac implementation. >-- >Dominic Dunlop There is indeed a Macintosh(tm) implementation, written by SoftQuad. It's called Author/Editor(tm). You can get more information from SoftQuad by calling (416) 963-8337 or writing to: SoftQuad, Inc. 720 Spadina Ave. Toronto, Ontario Canada M5S 2T9 (Yes, I do work for SQ, although not in marketing, so I'll leave out the specifics. However, I'd like to point out that the first article with questions about SGML has already been answered, in much more detail by someone much more qualified to answer the questions, in comp.text). Regards, Dak -- // David A. 'Dak' Keldsen: dak@sq.com or utai[.toronto.edu]!sq!dak // "If you want to write a song about the moon / // You want to write a spiritual tune / _Then do it_ / // Write a song about the moon" --Song About the Moon, Paul Simon
lyson (Angela Lyson) (08/09/90)
Dominic Dunlop writes: > In article <194@sierra.STANFORD.EDU> siegman@sierra.STANFORD.EDU > (siegman) writes: > > I'm involved in a planning effort exploring computerized > > manuscript preparation/typesetting packages for technical manuscripts > > for professional journals, professional societies, book manuscripts, > > and so on. Prime candidates seem to be TeX and SGML (or is it SMGL?), > > which I gather is IBM's (?) "Standard Graphics Markup Language" (?). > > It's been claimed that SGML is much more widely used "commercially" or > > in "commercial publishing" than is TeX. > > SGML is also being used in a number of > government-sponsored projects around the world (the Canadians, I believe, > are pretty hot on it)... > > All this is utter hear-say: I am not a user. And, after all that, no, I > don't know of a Mac implementation. (I'm forwarding this for a friend without net access:) There are two Macintosh implementations of SGML that I know of and, interestingly, they are both from Canada: CheckMark from Software Exoterica in Ottawa, Ontario, and Author/Editor from SoftQuad in Toronto, Ontario. The products are targeted at different users and different tasks. CheckMark is primarily for large technical publications and is good in situations where markup is added to a document after the content has been written, probably by different people. Author/Editor is closer to a WYSIWYG word processor and is primarily for smaller documents written by a single author who wants to be aware of formatting as well as content. For further information, contact: Software Exoterica Corporation Suite 406, 383 Parkdale Avenue Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1Y 4R4 (613) 722 1700 SoftQuad Inc 720 Spadina Avenue Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 2T9 (416) 963 8337 Disclaimer: I wrote most of CheckMark. I hope I have been objective in describing these somewhat competitive programs. Ron Hayter former Senior Software Developer at Software Exoterica -- Angela Lyson Mobile Data International ...!uunet!van-bc!mdivax1!lyson 11411 Number Five Road Richmond, B.C. Canada V7A 4Z3 Cheer up! The worst is yet to come! Walter Gage