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- From: John.Lamp@deakin.edu.au (John Lamp)
- Newsgroups: comp.text.sgml,comp.answers,news.answers,comp.text.xml
- Subject: [comp.text.sgml] Frequently Asked Questions
- Followup-To: comp.text.sgml
- Date: 14 Apr 1999 15:01:24 GMT
- Organization: Deakin University
- Lines: 148
- Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU
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- Reply-To: david@megginson.com (David Megginson)
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- Summary: This posting gives some basic pointers to useful
- information on ISO8879 - SGML
- Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.text.sgml:24393 comp.answers:35803 news.answers:155612 comp.text.xml:2803
-
- Archive-name: text/sgml-faq
- URL: http://lamp.infosys.deakin.edu.au/sgml/sgmlfaq.txt
- Posting-Frequency: monthly
- Maintainer: David Megginson <dmeggins@uottawa.ca>
- Version: $Revision: 0.8 $
- Last-modified: $Date: 1998/09/16 16:21:17 $
-
- SGML FAQ:
- Ten Basic Questions
-
- 1) What is SGML?
-
- ANSWER: SGML stands for "Standard Generalized Markup Language" (or
- "Standard Goldfarb Mosher Lorie," but that's an inside joke).
- Essentially, SGML is a method for creating interchangeable,
- structured documents; with it, you can do the following:
-
- - assemble a single document from many sources (such as SGML
- fragments, word processor files, database queries, graphics,
- video clips, and real-time data from sensing instruments);
-
- - define a document structure using a special grammar called a
- Document Type Definition (DTD);
-
- - add markup to show the structural units in a document; and
-
- - validate that the document follows the structure that you
- defined in the DTD.
-
- The official definition of SGML is in the international standard
- ISO 8879:1986. For a list of general information on SGML,
- including online tutorials, see the following link at Robin
- Cover's SGML/XML Web Site (next question):
-
- http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/general.html
-
-
- 2) How do I find out more about SGML applications (i.e. DTDs),
- projects, free tools, and related standards?
-
- ANSWER: See Robin Cover's extensive SGML/XML web site at
-
- http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/
-
- The site is updated almost daily (or so NetMinder tells me), and
- is the best source of both general and specific SGML information.
- ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS START HERE!!! If you want to search for a
- specific term or keyword, you can jump straight to the URL
-
- http://www.sil.org/htbin/sgml-index.com
-
- For general questions, please feel free to post to the newsgroup
- comp.text.sgml, once you're certain that you cannot find the
- answer at Robin's or Steve Pepper's sites (for the latter, see
- the next question).
-
-
- 3) How do I find out more about free and commercial SGML software
- tools (such as editors, converters, formatters, and databases)?
-
- ANSWER: See Steve Pepper's excellent Whirlwind Guide to SGML Tools
- and Vendors at
-
- http://www.infotek.no/sgmltool/guide.htm
-
-
- 4) Where can I buy or download a program to convert my
- Postscript/Word/WordPerfect legacy documents to SGML automatically?
-
- ANSWER: If you have any experience in construction, that's roughly
- equivalent to asking where you can rent a machine to convert
- bricks into a house automatically.
-
- Accept that you'll have to do some programming (and possibly a lot
- of manual intervention), then look at Steve Pepper's Whirlwind
- Guide (see above) to find some software tools that can get you
- started.
-
-
- 5) Where can I buy or download a program to convert my SGML document
- to HTML/RTF/Word/WordPerfect/Postscript automatically?
-
- ANSWER: You _can_ do this automatically (it's more like converting
- a house back to bricks), but usually not out of the box -- unless
- someone has already done the job for you, you will have to use a
- graphic interface or a programming language to tell the formatting
- application what the document should look like. Again, Steve
- Pepper's Whirlwind Guide (see above) lists some software tools
- that can get you started.
-
-
- 6) Who's using SGML?
-
- ANSWER: Government, many big industries, the military, academic
- research projects (big and small), and everyone who uses the
- World-Wide Web -- SGML consultants and developers are very busy.
- For a list of major SGML initiatives in government and industry
- (courtesy of Robin Cover), see
-
- http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/gov-apps.html
-
- For a list of major SGML initiatives in academia, see
-
- http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/acadapps.html
-
-
- 7) What's the difference between SGML and HTML?
-
- ANSWER: HTML is an SGML application (a DTD and a set of processing
- conventions). Most HTML browsers do not support some basic SGML
- constructions, like arbitrary entities, but nearly all SGML
- authoring tools are capable of producing good HTML documents.
-
- For more information on HTML, see the HTML entry at Robin Cover's
- SGML/XML Web Site, above.
-
-
- 8) What's the difference between SGML and XML?
-
- ANSWER: Unlike HTML, XML is not an SGML application -- instead,
- it's a set of simple conventions for using SGML without some of
- the more esoteric features. It's still SGML, though.
-
- For more information on XML, see the XML entry at Robin Cover's
- SGML/XML Web Site, above.
-
-
- 9) Can I post job announcements to comp.text.sgml?
-
- ANSWER: Sure, if they're real and SGML-related. It's much more
- interesting to see job postings from the companies themselves than
- from head-hunters.
-
- One of the best signs of SGML's strength right now is that people
- often complain about too many job postings in comp.text.sgml.
-
-
- 10) What about X? You didn't mention it.
-
- ANSWER: Again, visit Robin Cover's and Steve Pepper's web sites
- (questions 2 and 3) -- they are simply the best guides to SGML
- information, and will tell you almost anything you want to know,
- from where to download a certain DTD to what tools and standards
- exist for producing formatted output from SGML documents.
-
-
- __END OF FAQ__
-
-