TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Before SGML was a creature of the ISO, it was a project involving the
main industry players driven by requirements of the U.S. Department of
Defense. I don't remember all of them, but I know that Charles
Goldfarb was a main member of the group, and that IBM was also heavily
involved.
Originally, it was said that XML involved "about 80%" of the SGML
standard, with the other 20% being less used but creating complexity.
Over a very short time, XML began to be extended in many directions,
as we are familiar today. That was a result of finding new ways to use
structured information.
For example, the pre-existing EDI (electronic data interchange)
business is now all but dead. Before XML, EDI was a specialization of
a few industry players, who charged very large fees to connect two
legacy IT systems electronically, usually between vendor and customer.
With XML, so long as the information on both ends is structured, it is
relatively trivial to get them to meaningfully be connected.
Because of the designed-in extensibility, new uses are constantly
showing up. In fact, there are many uses in which XML is used for
interprocess communications within a single information system--and
not dealing with "documents" as we would normally think of them at
all.
To me, therefore, the entire XML area has become complex enough that
it is difficult for newcomers to master--much more so than SGML, I'd
agree--but that at some point most individuals find that portion of
the topic that they can and will employ.
As the tools mature, it should be increasingly easy for less-educated
users to create properly structured docs.
For the benefit of those who might only now be getting into structured
information, the primary organization involved is OASIS
(www.oasis-open.org). The most up-to-date listing of resources is
found on the Cover Pages, hosted by OASIS.
David
On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 14:15:15 -0700, Ned Bedinger <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com> wrote:
>
ROBOHELP X5: Featuring Word 2003 support, Content Management, Multi-Author
support, PDF and XML support and much more!
TRY IT TODAY at http://www.macromedia.com/go/techwrl
WEBWORKS FINALDRAFT: New! Document review system for Word and FrameMaker
authors. Automatic browser-based drafts with unlimited reviewers. Full
online discussions -- no Web server needed! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
