Re: SGML - Tell me about it.

[Chuck Banks <chuck -at- ASL -dot- DL -dot- NEC -dot- COM>]

Tom,

        You're confusing SGML with the current set of tools
used to implement it.  I agree the current tools are hard to
use and are a step backwards at least a decade.  For members
in good standing of the GUI crowd, like me, the majority of
SGML tools currently available stink on ice.  When the software
guys and gals move their tools up to GUI and integrate their
functions, I'll be glad to consider SGML.  But not now.

        Why consider SGML?  If you have to package the same
text and graphics for multiple presentation formats or platforms,
SGML offers the simplest, to date, method of migrating existing
documents.  Under SGML standards, the equivalent of style sheets --
the DTDs, are completely separate files from the actual text and
graphic files.  So you can't use an 8.5 x 11 portrait Bell System
Practice format?  Swap the DTD and wala, you have an 11x 8.5,
lanscape version in Information Mapping format.

        It's not that simple yet, but that's what the SGML
people are all aiming at, endless reuse of existing text and
graphics.

        I applaud their efforts.  I just don't like the effort
I have to apply to reap the benifits.  I'm used to GUI and I
like it.  I don't want to return to the days of vi and roff.

        Just remember, SGML is NOT a product.  SGML is a schema,
a method, an infrastructure.  It's defined in a set of proposed
standards.

        There's a Usenet newsgroup (comp.text.sgml) where they
subscribers can point you toward the latest pubs on SGML and
the latest standards documents.

Check it out!

Chuck Banks
--
__        ________     ______
|\\   |  ||          //              Chuck Banks
| \\  |  ||_______  ||               Senior Technical Writer
|  \\ |  ||         ||               NEC America, Inc.
|   \\|   \\______   \\______        E-Mail:      chuck -at- asl -dot- dl -dot- nec -dot- com
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