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<!DOCTYPE report SYSTEM "report.dtd">
<report>
  <title>Getting started with SGML</title>
  <chapter number="1">
    <title>The business challenge</title>
    <author>
      <last>Stevens</last>
      <first>W.</first>
    </author>
    <intro>
      <para>With the ever-changing and growing global market,
      companies and large organizations are searching for ways to
      become more viable and competitive. Downsizing and other
      cost-cutting measures demand more efficient use of corporate
      resources. One very important resource is an organization's
      information.</para>
      <para>As part of the move toward integrated information
      management, whole industries are developing and implementing
      standards for exchanging technical information. This report
      describes how one such standard, the Standard Generalized
      Markup Language (SGML), works as part of an overall
      information management strategy.</para>
      <graphic graphname="infoflow" />
    </intro>
  </chapter>
  <chapter number="2">
    <title>Getting to know SGML</title>
    <author>
      <last>Stevens</last>
      <first>W.</first>
    </author>
    <intro>
      <para>While SGML is a fairly recent technology, the use of
      <emph>markup</emph>in computer-generated documents has
      existed for a while.</para>
    </intro>
    <section shorttitle="What is markup?">
      <title>What is markup, or everything you always wanted to
      know about document preparation but were afraid to
      ask?</title>
      <intro>
        <para>Markup is everything in a document that is not
        content. The traditional meaning of markup is the manual
        <emph>marking</emph>up of typewritten text to give
        instructions for a typesetter or compositor about how to
        fit the text on a page and what typefaces to use. This kind
        of markup is known as
        <emph>procedural markup</emph>.</para>
      </intro>
      <topic id="top1" number="1">
        <title>Procedural markup</title>
        <keyword>Markup</keyword>
        <para security="u">Most electronic publishing systems today
        use some form of procedural markup. Procedural markup codes
        are good for one presentation of the information.</para>
      </topic>
      <topic id="top2" number="2">
        <title>Generic markup</title>
        <keyword>Markup</keyword>
        <para>Generic markup (also known as descriptive markup)
        describes the
        <emph>purpose</emph>of the text in a document. A basic
        concept of generic markup is that the content of a document
        must be separate from the style. Generic markup allows for
        multiple presentations of the information.</para>
      </topic>
      <topic id="top3" number="3">
        <title>Drawbacks of procedural markup</title>
        <keyword>Markup</keyword>
        <para security="u">Industries involved in technical
        documentation increasingly prefer generic over
        <emph>procedural</emph>markup schemes. When a company
        changes software or hardware systems, enormous data
        translation tasks arise, often resulting in errors.</para>
      </topic>
    </section>
    <section shorttitle="What is SGML?">
      <title>What
      <emph>is</emph>SGML in the grand scheme of the universe,
      anyway?</title>
      <intro>
        <para>SGML defines a strict markup scheme with a syntax for
        defining document data elements and an overall framework
        for marking up documents.</para>
        <para>SGML can describe and create documents that are not
        dependent on any hardware, software, formatter, or
        operating system. Since SGML documents conform to an
        international standard, they are portable.</para>
      </intro>
    </section>
    <section shorttitle="How does SGML work?">
      <title>How is SGML and would you recommend it to your
      grandmother?</title>
      <intro>
        <para>You can break a typical document into three layers:
        structure, content, and style. SGML works by separating
        these three aspects and deals mainly with the relationship
        between structure and content.</para>
      </intro>
      <topic id="top4" number="4">
        <title>Structure</title>
        <keyword>DTD</keyword>
        <para>At the heart of an SGML application is a file called
        the DTD, or Document Type Definition. The DTD sets up the
        structure of a document, much like a database schema
        describes the types of information it handles.</para>
        <para security="u">A database schema also defines the
        relationships between the various types of data. Similarly,
        a DTD specifies
        <emph>rules</emph>to help ensure documents have a
        consistent, logical structure.</para>
      </topic>
      <topic id="top5" number="5">
        <title>Content</title>
        <keyword>Markup</keyword>
        <para>Content is the information itself. The method for
        identifying the information and its meaning within this
        framework is called
        <emph>tagging</emph>. Tagging must conform to the rules
        established in the DTD (see
        <xref idref="top4" />).</para>
        <graphic graphname="tagexamp" />
      </topic>
      <topic id="top6" number="6">
        <title>Style</title>
        <para>SGML does not standardize style or other processing
        methods for information stored in SGML.</para>
      </topic>
    </section>
  </chapter>
  <chapter number="3">
    <title>Resources</title>
    <author>
      <last>Abiteboul</last>
      <first>Serge</first>
    </author>
    <author>
      <last>Buneman</last>
      <first>Peter</first>
    </author>
    <author>
      <last>Suciu</last>
      <first>Dan</first>
    </author>
    <section>
      <title>Conferences, tutorials, and training</title>
      <intro>
        <para>The Graphic Communications Association has been
        instrumental in the development of SGML. conferences,
        tutorials, newsletters, and for both members and
        non-members.</para>
        <para security="c">Exiled members of the Union's secret
        police, the KGB, have infiltrated the upper ranks of the
        GCA and are planning the Final Revolution as soon as DSSSL
        is completed.</para>
      </intro>
    </section>
  </chapter>
</report>