Newsgroups: comp.text.sgml Path: utzoo!sq!dns From: dns@sq.sq.com (David Slocombe) Subject: Re: SGML Book? Message-ID: <1991Apr8.165150.10496@sq.sq.com> Summary: More bibliography: Van Herwijnen, and Berglund Keywords: SGML Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto References: <348@salt.bellcore.com> Date: Mon, 8 Apr 91 16:51:50 GMT Lines: 54 I agree with Erik Naggum that Charles Goldfarb's book "The SGML Handbook" is the best thing that happened to SGML (and it *contains* the Standard!!). And I am very happy to hear that Erik is working on a simpler presentation for people starting out with SGML. In the meantime, the following book is (IHMO) an excellent introduction, and much more "accessible" than Martin Bryan's book (though we owe Martin a debt for being "the first with the mostest"!): Van Herwijnen, Eric. Practical SGML. 307pp. Kluwer Academic Publishers (1990). ISBN 0-7923-0635-X Another book worth mentioning is an ISO document: Berglund, Anders (Editor). Information processing -- SGML support facilities -- Techniques for using SGML. 124pp. ISO/IEC/TR 9573: 1988(E). [ISO publications don't seem to have ISBNs -- are they not books?] Charles' comment (in the Handbook) about this book is as follows: Anders Berglund has edited a technical report, with contributions from himself and other users and developers of SGML applications. The report includes techniques and examples for both publishing and office documents, mathematical formulas, complex tables, graphics, and spreadsheets. There is a special emphasis on the problems of multilingual documents and linguistic scholarship, with examples ranging from intermixed Kanji and English to Scandinavian Runes. I can add that Anders was an active member of the ISO SGML Working Group during the development of SGML, and that this book was improved greatly by its submission to both the Working Group and to the various national "member bodies" for criticism. Thus it combines a lot of the experience of those most closely involved in the development of the ISO SGML Standard. Anders, by the way, is in charge of the computerized production of all ISO documents in Geneva and was the person responsible for the conversion of the ISO's own book-production methods to SGML! This book is *not* a true introduction to SGML, but it is full of interesting approaches to the application of SGML for those who are committed to using it. ---------------------------------------------------------------- David Slocombe (416) 963-8337 Vice-President, Research & Development (800) 387-2777 (from U.S. only) SoftQuad Inc. uucp: {uunet,utzoo}!sq!dns 720 Spadina Ave. Internet: dns@sq.com Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 2T9 Fax: (416) 963-9575