Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!gatech!ncar!ames!purdue!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnewsi!hrs1
From: hrs1@cbnewsi.ATT.COM (herman.r.silbiger)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: Want info on SGML
Summary: SGML and document interchange
Keywords: SGML, document processing, markup
Message-ID: <374@cbnewsi.ATT.COM>
Date: 11 Jul 89 12:59:09 GMT
References: <8210005@hp-lsd.HP.COM> <3790@orca.WV.TEK.COM> <114143@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 20

In article <114143@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>, tut%cairo@Sun.COM (Bill "Bill" Tuthill) writes:
> The Holy Grail that everybody's looking for is the ability to
> readily interchange documents.  So far SGML doesn't help much
> in that regard, because common document formatting systems--
> TeX, troff, Frame, Interleaf, MSword, WordPerfect, etc.-- don't
> read or write SGML.  And that's the bottom line.

SGML has found wide application in publishing and related industries for indicating the logical structure of documents.  As was pointed out, the language is
an international standard, but the meaning of the tags is by mutual agreement.

There is a standard which is designed for the open interchange of compound
documents, Open/Office Document Architecture (ISO 8613, CCITT T.410).
ODA can convey both the logical structure and the layout of documents.
ODA uses either ASN.1 or SGML (in the form of ODL) to express these structures.
Systems which will accept ODA documents will be available by the end of the year, some of which will be on the UNIX(TM) operating system.

Work on the definition of both the ODA and SGML standard takes place in the
X3V1 standards committee.  For info on this activity, reply to this posting, or send e-mail to hrs@batavier.ATT.COM, or call 201 949 3193.

Herman Silbiger