Standard Generalized Markup Language

SGML is based on the idea that documents have structural and other semantic elements that can be described without reference to how such elements should be displayed. The actual display of such a document may vary, depending on the output medium and style preferences. Some advantages of documents based on SGML are:

• They can be created by thinking in terms of document structure rather than appearance characteristics (which may change over time).
• They will be more portable because an SGML compiler can interpret any document by reference to its document tag definition (DTD).
• Documents originally intended for the print medium can easily be re-adapted for other media, such as the computer display screen.

The language that this Web browser uses, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), is an example of an SGML-based language. There is a document type definition for HTML (and reading the HTML specification is effectively reading an expanded version of the document type definition).

SGML is based somewhat on earlier generalized markup languages developed at IBM, including General Markup Language (GML) and ISIL.

Read more about it at:

Arbortext, a pioneer in SGML, offers an illustrated introduction, SGML: Getting Started .

The World Wide Web Consortium offers an Overview of SGML Resources .

If you want to order a copy of the SGML standard from International Organization for Standardization, here is the place to start your order . For personal use, it would be expensive.

SearchXMLresources.com offers a library of links to Web pages about SGML.

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