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Until very recently, finding SGML software that was inexpensive and easy to use was a pipe dream. Even Microsoft’s own SGML Author for Word retails for several times the cost of Word, for which the SGML client was built. This is starting to change.
The expensive SGML software is dedicated to SGML. It includes tools such as ArborText’s ADEPT*Editor, SoftQuad’s Author/Editor, and Electronic Book Technologies’ DynaText. These software programs are at the top of their field. If there is a bell or whistle that can be rung or blown, these programs have it. You pay for that capability, of course. To buy all of the software for an SGML installation can cost thousands of dollars—far more than the average home user is willing to spend. These programs are designed for commercial customers. Just as a new UNIX workstation costs many thousands of dollars more than a new PC with a Pentium microprocessor, dedicated SGML software costs much more than an add-on program to a word processor.
Add-on SGML programs to word processors are becoming popular. They are also effective. The basic trade-off is that you need to exercise discipline in creating your SGML documents because you can introduce non-SGML characteristics into your documents more easily than with a dedicated tool.
Many add-on tools now have built-in parsing capabilities. The likelihood of creating a document that is non-conforming SGML decreases as add-on tools become smarter. One impressive tool is Near & Far Author. It closely approximates a dedicated SGML authoring tool. It is commercially available. Other tools, including Tag Wizard, are publicly available and downloadable from FTP sites. This add-on for Word is widely available as shareware from FTP sites. A registered, non-expiring version is available for a fee. You can download it from Nice Technologies page at:
Expensive tools are no longer the only options for creating and maintaining an SGML installation. You can find terrific tools for about what word processors cost a few years ago. They’re still not cheap, but they are much more affordable.
SGML is a prolific parent. HTML is its most famous child. HTML is like a celebrity whom everyone knows. Now that people know what HTML can do, they want to find out what SGML’s other offspring can do.
Major corporations use private SGML applications all the time, and numerous public projects use SGML applications to meet their objectives. The International Committee on Accessible Document Design (ICADD) project promises to help many visually challenged people gain access to information by automatically outputting SGML documents in Braille format. Whereas it is normally a laborious project to translate a document into Braille, SGML technology can do it automatically.
Many other public SGML projects will offer people access to the world’s great sources of electronic information, such as current scientific research data, the world’s finest literature, important historical texts, as well as a host of creative projects currently in progress. They include:
- • See “Current Collaborative Projects on the Web” and “Collaboration on SGML Standards,” pp. 519, 523
More information about these projects can be learned from the following Web sites:
These sister applications to HTML show you what you can do with SGML technology. Just as HTML enables a world of Web clients to share hypertext information effortlessly, other SGML applications offer their clients easy access to information in many flexible output formats.
Because HTML is an SGML application, it’s impossible to discuss the history of the World Wide Web without talking about SGML. This section refers to SGML applications other than HTML. Increasingly, you can access resources on the World Wide Web that are not written in HTML.
Many of these materials were recently translated from native environments into SGML; they have resided in SGML for years. They have only recently become available to HTML Web browsers. SGML resources on the World Wide Web fall under three categories:
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