From Computer Vendors

When computer companies started using SGML, SGML won the battle. Now that the publications and documentation departments right inside computer companies are demanding good SGML tools, the need is obvious to those companies. When software companies notice a problem, there’s a nice side benefit: they not only notice, but can do something about it, and so new tools are beginning to appear.

Silicon Graphics, Inc. was one of the first companies to move its documentation to SGML, calling its system “IRIS InSight” (see fig. 19.2). SGI makes the high-end graphics workstations that bring us a lot of special effects. Novell moved too, and reportedly saves millions of dollars (and trees) per year by shipping NetWare documentation on CD-ROM rather than paper. Novell used SGML to its advantage in moving to the Web; in only a few days, a single person set up over 110,000 pages of NetWare documentation for Web delivery, using a Web server that can convert SGML portions to HTML on demand. The data is still stored and maintained in generic SGML using its original DTDs, and so is always up-to-date without a complicated conversion and update process.

Fig. 19.2  SGI customers access documentation using the IRIS InSight system.

Sun Microsystems, AutoDesk, Phoenix (of BIOS fame), and many others also use SGML heavily, and there are reports that Microsoft does the same in-house. As one SGML Web publisher put it, a lot of the information you have to have is going onto the Web in SGML. IBM started using a predecessor of SGML, called GML, long ago, and may have more data in SGML-like forms than anyone.

From Libraries and Universities

Libraries already use a standard computer form for card-catalog information, called MARC (MAchine-Readable Catalog). This is not SGML, but the DTD for an SGML equivalent is being worked out right now. SGML is also being used for finding aids, which are the equivalent of catalogs for unique items like special collections of archives, personal papers, and manuscripts. The University of California at Berkeley’s library is spearheading this work, quietly converting huge numbers of finding aids into SGML and working with many other libraries to refine a DTD. They can (and do) deliver this information easily on any medium from CD-ROMs to the Web (see fig. 19.3).

Fig. 19.3  Berkeley and many other libraries have cooperated to develop the “Encoded Archival Description” DTD to help give easy access to a wide variety of manuscript and other collections.

Scholars and teachers also have put a lot of information into SGML and are starting to move it to the Web. The Brown University Women Writers’ Project is collecting and coding as many English documents as possible from female authors prior to 1950. Several theological tools, such as CDWord, provide access to sacred texts, commentaries, and the like. And the complete works of philosophers as varied as Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Pierce, and Augustine are in various stages of conversion to SGML.

The Oxford Text Archive and the Rutgers/Princeton Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities are developing large literary collections in SGML; some parts are already available on the Web. Many individuals also encode and contribute their favorite literature, as part of research or teaching.

From Industry

High-tech industries moved to SGML very early because of its power for managing large documents. Aircraft and similar industries use many subcontractors; assembling complete manuals using parts from a variety of sources is hard unless you set up some standards. So the aircraft manufacturers and the airlines got together and set up a DTD. The companies that make central-office telephone equipment have done the same.

Not long after these industries went to SGML, the automobile and truck industries did also; companies like Ryder and FreightLiner have improved their speed of repairs and overall reliability using SGML. Other success stories abound in power companies, copier and other office machine companies, and many others.

From Government and the International Community

They say the U.S. government is the world’s biggest publisher, and it’s probably true. The Patent Office puts out about 109M of new patent text per week (not counting figures); the Congressional Record adds a lot too. Both of these are moving to SGML, though it’s a challenge because they must be very careful not to disrupt current practices or delay delivery during the transition.

Internationally, there is much interest in SGML in Europe, and increasing interest in Asia. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO, despite the English word-order), which put SGML together in the first place, uses it for publishing some of its standards.