Reference List

Brief article on an SGML-based document production system by Allied-Signal Propulsion Engines (Phoenix, AZ). In the first test for a 1500-page proposal containing 1200 figures, "The cycle time for [document] layout was reduced from fourteen to three days." The composition engine is Datalogics Pager.

Summary: "Compatible with SunOS, this new release adds XML and Java support, two critical technologies for deploying knowledge management applications on intranets and extranets. Adept 7 reads and writes native, non-proprietary XML and can automatically convert documents between XML and SGML. Adept software is based on Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), an international standard for the exchange of structured text and document information. Adept 7 also supports the emerging Extensible Markup Language (XML), a simplified version of SGML that addresses the shortcomings of both SGML and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) for delivering highly intelligent and interactive information over intranets and extranets." See the online document.

Summary: "ArborText has announced that it is developing an OS/2 version of its Adept SGML editor, the result of a large order from IBM. IBM will be using Adept to create documentation, initially at a North Carolina facility of its Network System Division. Well-placed sources pegged the size of the order at hundreds of seats. IBM will be using its own DTD, IBMIDDOC, to author its documents. The Adept editor, which originated in Unix, was ported to Windows, minus the composition facility, in 1995. The OS/2 version, which will be functionally equivalent with the Windows version, should be ready for beta testing in April, although ArborText has not yet demonstrated the product in public. The first production release is scheduled to roll out to selected customers in July. General shipments and support for Asian languages (and Unicode character sets) won't come until the end of this year."

Description of ADEPT series version 6.0 for UNIX and OS/2 (scheduled for August, 1996). The release prepares ADEPT for a document management solution, code named "Willow." "Major enhancements of the 6.0 release include: Improved ease-of-use, Capability to list differences between documents, Expanded Application Program Interface (API), Expanded graphics support, Support for redundant license servers, Compatible with existing Windows' release. Specific improvements in ease-of-use include simplified menus, a powerful toolbar with tool tips, support for multiple open documents, popup menus, tear-off menus, and several enhancements to onscreen formatting. The new release also supports many new graphic types including EPSF 1.2 and 2.0, TIFF, GIF, JPEG, and BMP." See further: http://www.arbortext.com/whatsnew.html#Beta.

IBM will create and maintain SGML information using ArborText's ADEPT-Editor for OS/2, using the IBMIDDOC DTD. ArborText has also announced plans for and Asian language version (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) of ADEPT-Editor and ADEPT-Publisher, supporting editing and composition. "ArborText has chosen UNICODE (TM) as the character encoding standard to provide Asian language support. Although this 16-bit scheme supports most of the world's languages in a single system, ArborText will release support for Modern Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean in subsequent phases because of differences in fonts, keyboard input methods, and encoding standards. ArborText will support users who need encoding standards, such as JIS and EUC, through built-in or external mapping routines. Because UNICODE also supports English and European character sets, users will be able to create documents with multiple languages." See also:

A description of the Willow API which connects SGML authoring tools, integrating Adept into a number of document management systems. Partners in the Willow initiative include Documentum, InfoDesign, Texcel, Xyvision, and Computer Resources International.

"The Willow initiative delivers this new solution by adding "object awareness" to the company's flagship ADEPT*Editor tool and by adding an unprecedented level of tight integration to document management systems. Through object awareness, ADEPT*Editor will allow teams of authors to collaborate simultaneously on virtual documents as easily and as naturally as they edit single documents today. ADEPT*Editor will allow authors to create an object of any size and containing any number of other objects, all the while providing a simple document view. Authors will be able to create new objects by simply selecting a section of a document and pressing a key." [see from the Web site]

The article summarizes features of Adept PowerPaste - a conversion package for creating non-SGML documents into conforming SGML documents. The conversion tool is interactive. Contact: ArbotText, or link to the ArborText WWW Home Page.

Adobe joins the 'Mainstream SGML' program, for "SGML-driven component management" and simplified publishng systems. "Mainstream SGML" is an industry initiative sponsored chiefly by Microstar.

Anouncement for the availability of Adobe's integrated system for page composition, text editing, graphics handling, and interactive structure validation.

Notice for a newly formed SGML Users' Group in the Boston area. Call Susan Ryan (sryan@hensel.com) or Mark Ketzler (mdk@arbortext.com).

Describes the CALS ISG constituted at a meeting in Montreal in June, 1993. The ISG will promote both defense and non-defense applications of CALS. The article supplies an overview of the ISG's mission, background to its formation, and the interim structure.

Description of the ANSI standard which defines tests for SGML systems.

A note on the founding meeting of DLSIG, the Datalogics Special Interest Group, on September 10, 1996. For further information, contact Dianne Kennedy (1-630-941-8197; sgmldk@aol.com).

Summary: Diebold is a leading supplier of financial transaction machines, and maintains some 600 service manuals (plus 900 bulletins) for customers. ArborText's Adept SGML editor has been selected for this task because it provides the native SGML support and integrated composition facilities needed by the firm.

"ArborText, the world's leading provider of industrial strength software tools for document management and enterprise publishing, today announced that Diebold, a global leader in card-based transaction systems and security and service solutions, has chosen ArborText's ADEPT software as the basis for its new authoring and publishing system. The transition to an ADEPT solution provides Diebold with greater system stability in the face of evolving document system needs. The ADEPT products were selected as "best-of-breed" after extensive in-house evaluations and market research. Using ADEPT.Editor, ADEPT.Publisher and the ADEPT Command Language, in conjunction with Diebold's Document Database Manager (DDM), Diebold expects to achieve significant improvements in document consistency, availability and time to market." See the press release.

"The ACCA has published electronically, a comprehensive database of accounting standards, auditing guidelines and associated legislation. The system, known as FiND - Financial Information Database - is maintained in an SGML document repository. . ." Contact ACCA at: +44 171 3965924, or contact Digitome.

The CDROM contains some 300,000 bibliographic references and 200,000 authority list referrences. The records were converted from MARC to SGML, and are indexed using the EdiBase SGML search and retrieval software from DOCUMENSA. EdiBase SGML uses a client-server architecture and runs on Windows and Mac. Contact: , or link directly to the DOCUMENSA Home Page.

Summarizes the announcement by EBT and the related document "Using Catalogs and MIME to Exchange SGML Documents (IETF Draft Document).

See also the press release on the EBT WWW server: "Electronic Book Technologies, Inc. (EBT), the premier supplier of integrated CD/Web publishing solutions, today announced support for using the SGML Open Catalog standard to enable interchange of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) documents on the Internet. SGML Open Catalog is a widely embraced industry standard that enables SGML systems to interoperate in traditional CD-ROM or LAN environments. The SGML Open Catalog includes an extension mechanism that EBT has utilized to apply the Catalog standard to the Internet. This will enable exchange of SGML documents on the World-Wide Web, as well as via electronic mail. The use of SGML Open Catalogs on the Internet is described in the document, 'Using Catalogs and MIME to Exchange SGML Documents,' that is being considered by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)." [mirror, text only]

A note on the decision of Japan's leading newspaper, Asahi Shimbun, to use Electronic Book Technologies' products DynaTextJ and DynaWebJ in a program to deliver news on CD-ROM and on the Web. The newspaper has a daily circulation of 8.25 million, more than four times that of the Wall Street Journal. See: the press release; [mirror copy].

DynaWeb 2.0 with FreeFrames is to be available in first quarter 1996. FreeFrames offers a template mechanism for creating multiple views of information. "Frames" divide HTML pages into multiple scrollable regions within supporting browsers like Netscape. See the press release.

Report on Netscape plug-ins for DynaText as demonstrated by EBT at Internet Expo: Adobe's Acrobat Amber Reader, InterVU PreVU MPEG video player, Macromedia's Shockwave for Director, Microsoft Word Viewer Plug-in from Inso Corporation, VREAM's WIRL virtual reality 3D browser, FigLeaf Inline, etc. DynaText's plug-in facilities create an opportunity for developers to leverage the value of Netscape applications by allowing them to work with DynaText.

A note on a distribtion agreement between Electronic Book Technologies and Hong Hong Printing. Hong Hong will resell EBT's DynaText family of products in Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. See also the press release on the EBT server [mirror copy].

"DynaWeb serves out HTML on the fly directly from large DynaText electronic books stored in SGML. Powerful DynaText searching capabilities (full text, Boolean, proximity, structure-aware, wildcards, etc.) are fully enabled. DynaWeb has been shipped to Ameritech, Bell South, Brown University, Chadwyck Healey, Control Data Corp., EMC, General Motors, Information Handling Services (IHS), International Standards Organization (ISO), JYACC, Motorola, Novell, R.R. Donnelley, Semiconductor Research, Siemens Nixdorf, Silicon Graphics, SunSoft, Sybase, UNISYS, and VISA.

"DynaWeb is commercial grade Web server software that serves large SGML documents to Web browsers for rapid navigating and searching. DynaWeb provides important benefits to both DynaText(tm) publishers and to Web end-users by enabling remote Web browsers to fully exploit DynaText-like functionality on the Web, at the same time requiring minimal effort on the part of publishers to set up and maintain. The DynaText/DynaWeb environment provides publishers with a single solution for cross-platform publishing via the Web, CD-ROM, and LAN/WAN.

"DynaText SGML-based electronic books (often several hundred MBs) are orders of magnitude larger than HTML files, which are typically in the 2KB to 100KB range. To enable Web browsing of large DynaText books, DynaWeb automatically chunks the document, generating a TOC on-the-fly directly from the SGML structure in the electronic book. Users can navigate through the TOC hierarchy, selecting only information manageable by the Web browser. Additionally, all hypertext links in DynaText electronic books are converted to HTML links on-the-fly. These features free publishers from the time and expense of maintaining many small HTML files and associated hypertext links."

DynaWeb connects Web client browsers to the full functionality of the DynaText search engine, including support for fulltext, wildcard, Boolean, proximity, context, and complex searching. End users can quickly locate relevant information with searches that span multiple electronic book collections. The number of search hits are displayed alongside an interactive table of contents (TOC). Only TOC entries that contain search hits are displayed to end-users, greatly improving the efficiency for searching large collections of electronic books."

The article discusses DSSSL, DSSSL Lite, and MIME SGML, all of which are to be supported in EBT's DynaText software, according to an announcement at SGML Europe (Gmunden, Austria). The article also describes the use of DynaText, as demonstrated at the conference, by several EBT customers, including Chadwyck-Healey (The English Poetry Full-Text Database, English Verse Drama, and Patrologia Latina), ZGDV, ICL Client Server Systems, Nokia Telecommunications, IBERIA (Spanish Airlines), Flammarion, Sorman Information AB, and Kauppakaari-yhtyma Oy (leading legal publisher in Finland). See the more detailed press release on the EBT WWW server [mirror copy].

INSO of Boston is buying EBT (Electronic Book Technologies) for $39.8 million in cash, plus $5.2 million if EBT meets specified business objectives. EBT, with 150 employees, will be joined to INSO (formerly with 200 employees) with a goal of integrating some of the EBT and INSO products. INSO's technologies are in the area of "linguistic tools": spell checking, thesaurus tools, hyphenation routines, online dictionaries, proofing software, language-aware searching, etc. EBT specializes in document delivery tools for large electronic books.

A note on an agreement between Electronic Book Technologies (Providence, RI) and Gakken Co. Ltd. The latter is a large Japanese publisher who is to resell and support DynaText products in Japan, following the (now complete) creation of an Asian version of Dynatext.

Support for EPSIG and ISO 12083:1993 will now be managed by GCARI (Graphic Communications Association Research Institute) and McAfee & McAdam. Contact: Tel. +1-703-519-8160.

The article describes a new service, including provision for monthly SGML updates (from Martin Bryan). The Open Information Interchange (OII) data is served by the European Commission's ECHO WWW server. The URL: The Open Information Interchange Initiative - http://www.echo.lu/impact/oii/oiistand.html. See further: OII contact address.

After ten years as "Exoterica (Corporation)", the company is changing its name to OmniMark Technologies Corporation, symbolic of its core commitment to the OmniMark line of SGML software products. The new URL: www.omnimark.com.

A note on the recent purchase of Fulcrum Technologies' minority equity position in Exoterica Corporation by Exoterica employees. Fulcrum had acquired a 34% interest in Exoterica in 1993.

Extract: "Exoterica's President and CEO Acquires Exoterica Common Shares Previously Owned by Fulcrum Technologies: OTTAWA, CANADA, April 9, 1996 - Exoterica Corporation, the developer of OmniMark, the SGML-based hypertext programming language, today announced that John McFadden, the company's founder, President and CEO, has completed the purchase of the minority equity position previously owned by Fulcrum Technologies Inc. Exoterica is now 100% owned by Exoterica employees without any outside ownership interests." From: http://www.exoterica.com/release/fulcrum.html

A note on The Compleat SGML, containing an online annotated copy of the ISO 8879 standard and some 2400 (non-)conformance tests. The viewing software in the product runs under Microsoft Windows.

A note on the sale of Fulcrum's equity share in Exoterica; president and CEO of Exoterica purchased the shares, making the company 100% owned by its employees. Fulcrum had purchased a 34% share in Exoterica in 1993.

The article discusses updates for two of the leading "SGML middleware" tools: sophisticated programming tools that are used for data conversion. Exoterica's OmniMark Version 3 is now able to interoperate directly with a wide range of relational databases. Balise V 3 excels at conversion between different SGML representations of documents. "The Balise software implements a powerful interpreted language with C-like syntax and object-oriented constructs, automated memory management and many specialized features to handle text data in general and SGML structures in particular. The system, which embeds James Clark's new SP SGML parser, is available on all major Unix platforms, PCs under DOS (32-bits), Windows 3.x, Windows 95 and NT" [from Seybold description]. The new Balise directly supports UNICODE, and has incorporated a number of natural-language processing facilities. Balise now also can represent SGML hierarchies as memory-based trees, making complex manipulation operations easier to manage.

Note on version 3 of OmniMark, to be beta tested in the second quarter of 1996, and shipped in the third quarter. In the version upgrade, OmniMark will be integrated with mainstream relational database technologies.

See also the information on the Exoterica WWW server: "The chasm you're trying to cross separates your enterprise database assets from your publications. OmniMark is the bridge that lets your publications become part of your information framework. OmniMark provides a single environment for developing the server logic needed to collect, manage, and deliver up-to-the minute document-centric information to your customers. Through print-on-demand, on-line, the Web, or whatever's hot next year. Now you can leverage your investment in RDBMS and client technology with seamlessly integrated SGML technology to develop fully integrated publishing applications faster than ever before. OmniMark Version 3 finds a new role for SGML -- it effectively brings publications into the corporate data model currently dominated by RDBMS applications."

"OmniMark Version 3 introduces several exciting innovations, including a Hybrid Distributed Data Base (HDDB) model which seamlessly integrates SGML with relational database technology. HDDB allows organizations to break their large monolithic SGML DTDs into smaller independent Information Unit DTDs and share information modeling with relational technology. The key benefits are: easier to develop, understand, and maintain document models; simpler processing models; leverage existing IS assets and staff; increased data integrity; and reduced redundancy."

On Frame's product FrameMaker+SGML: "The new authoring and publishing software enables users to create, edit, and publish structured and SGML documents in an intuitive WYSIWYG environment. It combines page composition, text editing, graphics, interactive structure validation, and visual SGML support in one environment. Features for structured authoring include support for native SGML, including arbitrary document type definitions; mapping support for ISO public entity sets; hierarchical style definition; consistent text and graphics import and export capabilities across all platforms; and a starter kit for implementing the DocBook DTD created by the Davenport Group consortium of software vendors."

Note on Frame's new FrameMaker+SGML, which offers significant improvements over the previous FrameBuilder + SGML Toolkit.

"FrameMaker+SGML" is the next generation of FrameBuilder. It was announced at Seybold Boston in March 1995. Contact: Mark Hamilton at Frame.

Brief description of Fred, a tool developed by OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) to create DTDs from tagged text. See the entry for Fred in this database.

The author counsels "caution" about XML in light of the "gush" coming from the enthusiatic SGML crowd.

A note on the purchase of a ($1 million) equity position in Exoterica Corporation by Fulcrum Technologies, Inc. The cooperation with Fulcrum will allow Exoterica to develop closer ties in its products between SQL- and SGML-based databases.

Note on the purchase of a 20% minority position in Passage Systems (Cupertino, California) by Fulcrum Technologies. Passage Systems works closely with Exoterica Corporation, another SGML company. The business relationship provides an opportunity for integration of Fulcrum's full-text retrieval technology with Passage Systems' SGML services.

Overview of the conference to be held in Boston on November 18-21, 1996. See the conference entry for other information.

Note on the GCA schedule, which may also be found on the GCA WWW server [GCA SGML Conference & Tutorial Calendar]. Or contact GCA via other channels.

Brief description of the March 1997 conference in San Diego, California

Note on the recent (May 1996) upgrade to the GCA Web site, which now includes news features, reports, workshop summaries, committee information, and other useful data. The site is now called Graphic Communications Today. The URL: http://www.gca.org/.

Summary of a public presentation by Michael F. DiMario, Acting Public Printer, U.S. Government Printing Office. In light of Public Law 103-40, the GPO is planning to provide online versions of the Congressional Record and Federal Register. SGML is to be used in the data structuring to support online searching. The full text of the presentation is available from GCA.

Brief description of the WYSIWYG editor for HTML/SGML which works over the Internet. See or link to WWW site for Symposia (Internet editing of SGML/HTML documents) for further details.

Note on the PC Magazine's editors' choice of HoTMetaL Pro 2.0 for an award in the category of HTML authoring tools. See Press Release: HoTMetaL PRO 2.0 Wins PC Magazine's Editor's Choice Award on SoftQuad's WWW server, or PC Magazine: Publish to the Web: No Experience Required (offprint).

Announcement for version 1.1 of Eliot Kimber's tutorial introduction to HyQ, the query language defined in the HyTime standard. Network URLs for an online version of the document are given. [See further the bibliographic entry in this database.]

Announcement for the 2nd International Conference on the Application of HyTime, Vancouver, August 15-16, 1995. Eliot Kimber is to offer a HyTime course. See the main conference entry.

Announcement for the second annual CApH meeting, August 1995, in Vancouver, BC.

A note on the use of OmniMark by various groups within IBM for SGML translation tasks. Over 100 new sites acquired or became distributors for OmniMark in 1995.

Summary: "A serious review of ISO 12083 is under way. There is a concern about whether the standard is usable the way it is. This standard was based upon early 1980's AAP standard and was then rewritten and balloted as ISO 12083. As the standard has been used, flaws have been revealed. Also times and technology have changed so much that the audience and mission of the standard must be reviewed." The results of the survey are to be reviewed at a WG6 ISO 12083 meeting in Paris (SGML/XML Europe '98) May 17, 1998. Dianne Kennedy.

The article is available online. For more on ISO 12083, see the main entry: ISO 12083 DTDs [EPSIG].

A brief report on the first conference dedicated to publishing based upon ISO 12083, held at the Loews New York Hotel in New York City, July 31, 1996. It was co-sponsored by EPSIG and Datalogics. Case studies included presentations by Ted Freeman of Allen Press, Sheridan Press, and Robert Kelly for APS (American Physical Society). Apropos of the last-named: Physical Review Letters (PRL) now uses SGML in the journal production process. See the conference description for other details

Overview of the conference of August 16-17, 1995, in Vancouver, BC. See the main conference entry.

Description of version 1.1 an interactive SGML toolkit (SGML Application Server, SAS) designed to allow incorpotration of SGML functionality within new and existing applications. The current version consists of DLLs for Windows and C objects. The functions for SGML parsing and DTD navigation can be called by database engines, word processors, page makeup programs, etc. See an online draft of the text for this article (partial links; earlier: SSF Preview: SGML)

The brief article features Infrastructures for Information (I for I) new SGML toolkit as a promising new SGML offering. I4I will show its S4-Browser for Microsoft WinWord 6.0. The S4-Browser permits reviewing and annotation of SGML documents. A compantion product S4-Editor can be configured for operation with Winword.

The article describes the use of InContext Spider by XSoft and Corel. Contact InContext, or link directly to the InContext Systems Web Site.

Note on a template-based architecture to generate HTML using word-processor source files.

Brief description of the word-processor to HTML conversion tool. Supports HTML 3.0 draft specification and other grammars. A demo version can be obtained via the Internet: http://www.infoaccess.com/.

The article reports on one of the first industry applications of HyTime for hypermedia documents. The AIMSS software (Advanced Integration Maintenance Support System) is a set of tools for creating SGML-based interactive documents.

The article describes LivePage, a product from Inforium which stores SGML documents as fragments within a relational database and allows SQL access to the documents. Livepage consists of a group of Windows client applications that communicate with SQL databases. Livepage currently supports Oracle, Watcom, Sybase, and Microsoft SQL server databases.

Description of LivePAGE WebMaster, which uses relational database technology to manage information on a Web site and deliver information as documents.

Summary: Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products is to buy the assets of Inso's linguistic software business unit for some $19.5 million. "Included in the assets to be transferred are all of Inso's linguistic software products, including its proofing tools, reference works and information management tools, the Quest database search technology, and all customer and supplier agreements related to those products." The Seybold editors believe this decision "signals its [Inso's] intent to focus on publishing software... and to rely less on OEM sales." In April 1998, Inso 'reported net revenues of $17,632,000 for the quarter ended March 31, 1998 as compared with net revenues of $19,062,000 for the quarter ended March 31,1997.' See also: "Inso Corporation Enters Into Agreement to Sell Linguistic Software Business Unit to Lernout."

A note on Intel's experimental use of SGML for delivery of technical documentation. Intel used the Pinnacles Component Information Standard (PCIS) DTD as the basis for conversion of documents into SGML. See the Intel database entry.

The event represents a "new conference and exposition focusing on business solutions and trends in the electronic and online publishing market." An SGML pre-conference tutorial will be offered.

Announcement for Interleaf 6 SGML, an integrated solution for publishing SGML documents.

Interleaf SGML 6 is described as "a publishing hub for creating, assembling and publishing SGML information." See also the Interleaf WWW server description: Interleaf 6 SGML is a powerful publishing hub for creating, assembling, and publishing SGML information. This extended version of Interleaf's premier publishing system provides full access to the advanced features of Interleaf 6 while creating documents to conform to an SGML Document Type Definition (DTD). Only Interleaf 6 SGML lets you manage SGML and non-SGML documents throughout their lifecycle in one integrated system. From Interleaf 6 SGML, documents can be: (1) published to paper; (2) viewed by an SGML viewer; (3) converted to HTML for World Wide Web publication; (4) included in an Interleaf WorldView collection; (5) passed to other SGML systems."

A <TAG> interview with Eric Severson on the history and implications of Interleaf's acquisition of Avalanche Development Corporation.

Note on the use of an SGML-based system (EBT DynaText) by The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a non-profit company owned by its 2000 member banks.

The author provides a preview of Microstar's announcements for Near & Far Author 2.0 (with other business partnership developments) at the Seybold San Francisco Conference (September 11-13, 1996).

The article describes Microstar's plans to "bring SGML into the mainstream" through an aggressive growth plan, including a relocation to larger offices in Ottawa.

A note on a $935,000 (Canadian) contract awarded to Microstar by the Canadian Defense Industry Research Program (DIRP) to carry out applied research in the area of document semantics. Microstar in involved in the JCALS project, and manages SGML-related software products.

Near & Far Author monitors a Word user during the creation of a Standard Generalized Markup Language document to ens