<!DOCTYPE report SYSTEM "report.dtd"><report>
<title>Getting started with SGML</title>
<chapter>
<title>The business challenge</title>
<intro>
<para>With the ever-changing and growing global market, companies and
large organizations are searching for ways to become more viable and
competitive. Downsizing and other cost-cutting measures demand more
efficient use of corporate resources. One very important resource is
an organization's information.</para>
<para>As part of the move toward integrated information management,
whole industries are developing and implementing standards for
exchanging technical information. This report describes how one such
standard, the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), works as
part of an overall information management strategy.</para>
<graphic graphname="infoflow"/></intro></chapter>
<chapter>
<title>Getting to know SGML</title>
<intro>
<para>While SGML is a fairly recent technology, the use of
<emph>markup</emph> in computer-generated documents has existed for a
while.</para></intro>
<section shorttitle="What is markup?">
<title>What is markup, or everything you always wanted to know about
document preparation but were afraid to ask?</title>
<intro>
<para>Markup is everything in a document that is not content. The
traditional meaning of markup is the manual <emph>marking</emph> up
of typewritten text to give instructions for a typesetter or
compositor about how to fit the text on a page and what typefaces to
use. This kind of markup is known as <emph>procedural markup</emph>.</para></intro>
<topic topicid="top1">
<title>Procedural markup</title>
<para>Most electronic publishing systems today use some form of
procedural markup. Procedural markup codes are good for one
presentation of the information.</para></topic>
<topic topicid="top2">
<title>Generic markup</title>
<para>Generic markup (also known as descriptive markup) describes the
<emph>purpose</emph> of the text in a document. A basic concept of
generic markup is that the content of a document must be separate from
the style. Generic markup allows for multiple presentations of the
information.</para></topic>
<topic topicid="top3">
<title>Drawbacks of procedural markup</title>
<para>Industries involved in technical documentation increasingly
prefer generic over procedural markup schemes. When a company changes
software or hardware systems, enormous data translation tasks arise,
often resulting in errors.</para></topic></section>
<section shorttitle="What is SGML?">
<title>What <emph>is</emph> SGML in the grand scheme of the universe, anyway?</title>
<intro>
<para>SGML defines a strict markup scheme with a syntax for defining
document data elements and an overall framework for marking up
documents.</para>
<para>SGML can describe and create documents that are not dependent on
any hardware, software, formatter, or operating system. Since SGML documents
conform to an international standard, they are portable.</para></intro></section>
<section shorttitle="How does SGML work?">
<title>How is SGML and would you recommend it to your grandmother?</title>
<intro>
<para>You can break a typical document into three layers: structure,
content, and style. SGML works by separating these three aspects and
deals mainly with the relationship between structure and content.</para></intro>
<topic topicid="top4">
<title>Structure</title>
<para>At the heart of an SGML application is a file called the DTD, or
Document Type Definition. The DTD sets up the structure of a document,
much like a database schema describes the types of information it
handles.</para>
<para>A database schema also defines the relationships between the
various types of data. Similarly, a DTD specifies <emph>rules</emph>
to help ensure documents have a consistent, logical structure.</para></topic>
<topic topicid="top5">
<title>Content</title>
<para>Content is the information itself. The method for identifying
the information and its meaning within this framework is called
<emph>tagging</emph>. Tagging must
conform to the rules established in the DTD (see <xref xrefid="top4"/>).</para>
<graphic graphname="tagexamp"/></topic>
<topic topicid="top6">
<title>Style</title>
<para>SGML does not standardize style or other processing methods for
information stored in SGML.</para></topic></section></chapter>
<chapter>
<title>Resources</title>
<section>
<title>Conferences, tutorials, and training</title>
<intro>
<para>The Graphic Communications Association has been
instrumental in the development of SGML. GCA provides conferences,
tutorials, newsletters, and publication sales for both members and
non-members.</para>
<para security="c">Exiled members of the former Soviet Union's secret
police, the KGB, have infiltrated the upper ranks of the GCA and are
planning the Final Revolution as soon as DSSSL is completed.</para>
</intro>
</section>
</chapter>
</report>
