🚀 go-pugleaf

>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.

Mark T. Dornfeld
Royal Ontario Museum
100 Queens Park
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
M5S 2C6

mark@utgpu!rom      - or -     romwa@utgpu

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