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From: romwa@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu (Mark Dornfeld)
Date: Sun, 17-Jul-88 12:44:58 EDT
Message-ID: <1988Jul17.124458.2902@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu>
Organization: University of Toronto Computing Services
Newsgroups: comp.text.desktop
Subject: Re: Need info on document languages
References: <59744@sun.uucp>
Reply-To: romwa@gpu.utcs.UUCP (Mark Dornfeld)
Distribution: comp

In article <59744@sun.uucp> news@sun.uucp (news) writes:
>I need information on Standard Graphics Markup Language (SGML) and
>Standard Document Markup Language.  Specifically:
>
>	o  what are they?
The only SGML I'm aware of stands for Standard Generalized
Markup Language. I do not claim that this is the only facility
to use the SGML acronym.  SGML is an ISO standard (# 8879) and
is a generic language for marking up text.  It has virtually
no facilities for marking up graphics other than indicating
the location of a graphic element in a document and perhaps
the file name of the graphic.

SGML requires a parser and a formatting program to produce
text.  Troff or Tex are excellent for this kind of process.
>
>	o  why would I want to use either of them?
SGML is independant of any hardware or formatting program.
Thus it can be used as a corporate standard for data archives
or Records Management.  It is also being adopted by numerous
typesetters.  This should make publishing a little more
competitive since editing need only go to the SGML stage and
no system-specific commands will be embedded in the document.
>
>	o  how do they differ functionally from PostScript (tm)?
SGML is not a programming language.  There is no analogy
there.
>
>	o  what documentation is available?
ISO standards document:  Ref. No. ISO 8879-1986 (E).

There is also a publication of the American Association of
Publishers (AAP) dealing with their adoption of the standard.
>
>	o  what types of information can be encoded with these
>	   langauges?
Any kind of information can be designated, but the types of
information depend on the power of the formatter.  I don't see
why SGML can't be translated into a format for a technical
publishing system such as Interleaf.  We translate it into
troff and Ventura.
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>Jeff Marchese
>{sun,ames,att}!pacbell!ptsfa!jem
>(415)823-5163
>
Mark T. Dornfeld
Royal Ontario Museum
100 Queens Park
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
M5S 2C6

mark@utgpu!rom      - or -     romwa@utgpu