Introductions to SGML and XML

A dozen or more general introductions to SGML are available online, and are referenced in a special section of the SGML/XML Web Page. Introductory articles on XML are likewise referenced in a separate section. The following three items on SGML have been particularly influential in orienting the newcomer to the philosophical issues underlying SGML, and to the basic features of the markup metalanguage defined in ISO 8879:1986.

• Coombs, James H.; Renear, Allen H.; DeRose, Steven J. "Markup Systems and the Future of Scholarly Text Processing." Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery 30/11 (1987) 933-947. ISSN: 0001-0782. Reprinted in The Digital Word: Text-Based Computing in the Humanities, eds. George P. Landow and Paul Delaney (Cambridge/London: MIT Press, 1993) 85-118. A pioneering article on SGML and descriptive markup. See the abstract in the full bibliographic entry, or the online version [mirror copy].

• "A Gentle Introduction to SGML." Pages 13-36 (Chapter 2) in Guidelines for Electronic Text Encoding and Interchange (TEI P3). Edited by C.M. Sperberg-McQueen and Lou Burnard. Chicago: ACH/ACL/ALLC [Association for Computers and the Humanities, Association for Computational Linguistics, Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing], April 8 1994. 2 volumes, xxvi + 1290 pages. Chapter 2 supplies an excellent introduction to SGML; the remainder of the two volumes will be of interest to anyone planning to implement SGML for analysis of literary and linguistic data. See the full reference for availability on the Internet, on CDROM, and in print copy. The HTML version for the 'Gentle Introduction': http://www-tei.uic.edu/orgs/tei/sgml/teip3sg/index.html, or from HTI.

• SoftQuad, Inc. The SGML Primer. SoftQuad's Quick Reference Guide to the Essentials of the Standard: The SGML Needed for Reading a DTD and Marked-up Documents and Discussing them Reasonably. Version 3.0 (Correction and revision of Version 2.0, May 1991). Toronto: SoftQuad Inc., December, 1991. 36 pages. The SGML Primer provides a highly readable and even enjoyable introduction to the essential concepts and features of SGML. See the bibliographic entry for ordering information, or access the work online via SoftQuad's WWW server: (1) The SGML Primer: Introduction, and (2) The SGML Primer: Main Text. An HTML client capable of handling graphics is necessary for viewing the color figures. SQ source: intro, [body] [ISUG]

The SGML/XML Standards and Their Technical Commentary

• Bray, Tim. The Annotated XML 1.0 Specification. Tim Bray, co-editor of the XML 1.0 specification, shares his knowledge and insights about XML, SGML and the working group behind the specification in this annotated version of the document. This resource presents the unaltered text of the XML specification in one pane (frame) of the display, augmented by graphically distinct note markers of five types: "(1) Historical or cultural commentary; some entertainment value; (2) Technical explanations, including amplifications, corrections, and answers to Frequently Asked Questions; (3) Advice on how to use this specification; (4) Examples to illustrate what the spec is saying; (5) Annotations that it's hard to find a category for."

• DeRose, Steven J. The SGML FAQ Book: Understanding the Foundation of HTML and XML. Electronic Publishing Series, Number 7. Dordrecht/Boston/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997. Extent: xxiv + 250 pages, appendices. ISBN: 0-7923-9943-9. A long-overdue book that explains counter- and non-intuitive particulars of the ISO 8879:1986 metalanguage which have regularly 'tripped up' both novices and formal language experts. The book thus answers a plethora of practical and theoretical (technical) FAQs that have been heard on the Networks for many years. "The questions discussed in The SGML FAQ Book are repeatedly heard by people who make their living serving the SGML community." See the bibliographic entry for the detailed online Table of Contents, description, etc. [ISUG]

• DuCharme, Bob. XML: The Annotated Specification. The Charles F. Goldfarb Series on Open Information Management. The Definitive XML Series from Charles F. Goldfarb. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR, 1999. Extent: xx + 339 pages. ISBN: 0-13-082676-6. The complete official W3C XML specification is thoroughly annotated. Complete with glossary, reference tables (grammar productions), index, and '180 new usage examples'. For other description, see the author's Web site and the main bibliography entry.

• Goldfarb, Charles F. The SGML Handbook. Edited and with a foreword by Yuri Rubinsky. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990. Extent: 688 pages. ISBN: 0-19-853737-1. This volume contains the full annotated text of ISO 8879 (with amendments) and complete commentary on the SGML standard by its major architect and editor. See the full bibliographic entry for summary and Table of Contents. [ISUG]

• Graham, Ian S.; Quin, Liam. XML Specification Guide. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 1999. Extent: xiv + 432 pages. With technical (online) 'Supplementary Material and Resources' (Searchable Index of the XML Specification Documents, Searchable Index of Production Rules, XML Design of Patterns, Extracted EBNF, Other References and Resources). ISBN: 0-471-32753-0. Features: "(1) A complete explanation of XML structure, syntax, and rules, built around detailed examples; (2) A comprehensive specification-guide to XML, annotated with helpful clarifications, background material, and illustrative examples; (3) In-depth coverage of namespaces and schemas; (4) A detailed discussion of the Unicode character sets and their relationship to XML; (5) A detailed glossary of important XML terms; (6) A quick-reference guide to XML features, with illustrated examples of how they differ from HTML. Part One presents a bootstrap overview of XML. Part two contains the complete XML 1.0 specification, with explanatory annotations. Part three contains appendices that (a) describe technical standards (e.g., the Unicode character set) important for understanding important parts of the XML specification, and that (b) introduce some of the evolving, but as-yet incomplete, extensions to the base XML 1.0 standard." See the supporting Web site and the main bibliography entry.

• Usenet News: comp.text.sgml (CTS). In terms of currency, interactivity, volume, and high technical quality, the CTS group and its archive constitute a superior and probably unmatched "live" resource for critical commentary on SGML. Its 7000+ contributions are not individually referenced here. See the main CTS entry for full and current details, or the CTS shadow archive maintained by Arjan Loeffen.

Handbooks and User Guides: SGML/XML/XSL/XSLT/XPath

• Ahmed, Kal; Danny Ayers, Mark Birbeck, Jay Cousins, David Dodds, Joshua Lubell, Miloslav Nic, Daniel Rivers-Moore, Andrew Watt, Rob Worden, Ann Wrightson. Professional XML Metadata. Wrox Programmer to Programmer Series. Birmingham, UK: Wrox Press Ltd., 2001. Extent: x + 568 pages. ISBN: 1-861004-51-6. The book covers: 'How DTDs and XML Schemas can be used for resource discovery; The latest developments in XML querying and linking; RDF Syntax, Model, and Schema put into practice; How to build, share, and process XTM topic maps; Initiatives such as Meaning Definition Language and Schematron; Concepts behind more sophisticated search engines based on inferencing; Extracting and using meta data to enhance utility of databases; Designing XML meta data vocabularies to describe discrete processes.' See details

• Alschuler, Liora. ABCD. . .SGML: A User's Guide to Structured Information. London/Boston: International Thomson Computer Press, 1995. xviii + 414 pages; diskette with SoftQuad's Panorama FREE browser and SGML Resource Guide. ISBN: 1-850-32197-3. A highly readable, carefully researched, and informative guide that includes over a dozen case studies. The book deals not so much with the technical details of the SGML standard as with structured information as a corporate asset -- and why it makes sense that SGML is being implemented widely in the industry, government, and academic sectors. "The book is for managers of publishing projects -- electronic or print or both -- who are in the initial stages of adopting SGML or are considering adopting SGML or who see this new technology looming over the horizon and need to know more about it before they plot their own course in response. It is also intended for programmers and system implementors, again, as a general framework that describes the new processes and changes to workflow that inevitably accompany a new technology" [author's description]. A review of the book from Seybold Report on Publishing Systems is available online. See the bibliographic entry for abstract, overview and other reviews, as well as links to the publisher's WWW server giving the full text of the volume Preface, Table of Contents, and Microsoft's Cinemania case study [from Chapter 4]. [ISUG]

• Bradley, Neil. The Concise SGML Companion. Harlow, Essex: Addison-Wesley Longman Ltd., 1996. Extent: 336 pages. ISBN: 0-201-41999-8. The book provides an overview of SGML and HTML 3.2, with chapters dedicated to CALS tables and ISO 9573 math. It has helpful reference sections, a (truncated) listing of 8879 grammar productions, and a full glossary. It is cross-referenced throughout. See more information in the bibliographic entry. [ISUG]

• Bradley, Neil. The XSL Companion: Styling XML Documents. London/New York: Addison-Wesley/Pearson Education, [May] 2000. Extent: xiv + 318 pages. ISBN: 0-201-67487-4. "A concise, comprehensive and accessible guide to the scope, strengths and limitations of the XSL (eXtensible Stylesheet Language) family of stylesheet standards for XML, this book explains the practical ways in which XSL can be utilized for formatting and manipulating information held in the hugely popular XML data format. This book covers in detail the family of three separate stylesheet which make up XSL: (1) Xpath locates specific information within XML Documents (2) XSLT transforms XML documents into other data formats (3) XSL embeds formatting information in XML documents." See the book summary.

• Bryan, Martin. SGML: An Author's Guide to the Standard Generalized Markup Language. Wokingham/Reading/New York: Addison-Wesley, 1988. 380 pages. ISBN: 0-201-17535-5. A highly detailed manual explaining and illustrating features of ISO 8879. See the bibliographic entry for summary. [ISUG]

• Bryan, Martin. HTML and SGML Explained. Second Edition. White Plains, NY: Addison-Wesley Developers Press, 1997. Extent: 352 pages, CDROM disc. ISBN: 0-201-40394-3. "Fully updated to cover the latest features of SGML and HTML, this new edition of SGML: An Author's Guide now includes a detailed description of how the concepts of SGML are used in HTML." See the bibliographic entry. [ISUG]

• Cagle, Kurt; and Jon Duckett, Oliver Griffin, Stephen Mohr, Francis Norton, Nikola Ozu, Ian Stokes-Rees, Jeni Tennison, Kevin Williams. Professional XML Schemas. Wrox Programmer to Programmer Series. Birmingham, UK: Wrox Press Ltd., [July] 2001. Extent: xvi + 691 pages. ISBN: 1-861005-47-4. Professional XML Schemas "exhaustively details the W3C XML Schema language, and teaches the new syntax in an intuitive and logical way. [It documents] how to declare elements and attributes, how to create complex content models, how to work with multiple namespaces, and how to use XML Schemas in real-world situations. A number of practical case studies illustrate the design and creation of schemas in the diverse worlds of relational databases, document management, and e-commerce applications." See the Details.

• Carlson, Dave. Modeling XML Applications with UML. Practical e-Business Applications Boston/San Francisco: Addison-Wesley, 2001. xxi +333 pages. ISBN: 0-201-70915-5. The book "focuses on the design and visual analysis of XML vocabularies. It explores the generation of DTD and Schema languages from those vocabularies, as well as the design of enterprise integration and portals -- all using UML class diagrams and use case analysis. Also featured are extensive details on the deployment of XML vocabularies and portals, showing how to put these elements to work within distributed e-business systems." See references and volume description.

• Colby, Martin; Jackson, David S. Special Edition. Using SGML. QUE Special Edition Series. Indianapolis, IN: QUE Corporation, Macmillan Publishing. ISBN: 0-7897-0414-5. Extent: 600+ pages, with CDROM. Note: In light of review by SGML experts, this book cannot be recommended without qualification for SGML beginners, as it apparently contains an excess of typographic error and/or errors of fact in technical areas. See the main bibliographic entry for further volume description, including links to the online version, and caveats. [ISUG]

• Connolly, Dan (guest editor). XML: Principles, Tools, and Techniques. World Wide Web Journal [edited by Rohit Khare] Volume 2, Issue 4. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., Fall 1997. Extent: xii + 248 pages. ISBN: 1-56592-349-9. ISSN: 1085-2301. The volume contains a collection of twenty-one articles in six major sections, covering many aspects of the early development and use of the Extensible Markup Language. For further information, see the dedicated document containing abstracts and annotations for the articles; for reviews and bibliographic details, see the main bibliographic entry. [ISUG]

• Donovan, Truly. Industrial-Strength SGML: An Introduction to Enterprise Publishing. Charles F. Goldfarb Series On Open Information Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: PTR Prentice Hall, 1997. ISBN: 0-13-216243-1. The book is written "for people who need to understand how publishing applications and publishing systems can be built around this [SGML] technology to achieve a wide variety of objectives, the most critical of which is the systematic development and maintenance and use of the enterprise's information assets." [from the Preface] See the main bibliographic entry for further description. [ISUG]

• DuCharme, Bob. SGML CD: A Complete SGML Toolkit. Charles F. Goldfarb Series On Open Information Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall Professional Technical Reference, 1997. Extent: xx + 353 pages, CDROM disc. ISBN: 0-13-475740-8. The book and accompanying CDROM provide a valuable collection of SGML software and instructions on how to use the tools to usefully implement SGML. The software tools support SGML design, authoring, composition, and publishing. See the bibliographic entry for reviews and further details. [ISUG]

• Ensign, Chet. SGML: The Billion Dollar Secret. Charles F. Goldfarb Series On Open Information Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: PTR Prentice Hall, 1997. ISBN: 0-13-226705-5. The book contains a "series of detailed case studies of companies that have successfully deployed SGML to solve common information problems like document assembly lines that won't work because the pieces won't fit together, or products that can't get to market because an army of writers can't keep up with the changes, or support costs that are going through the roof because the published information is too complicated for the buyers to read." Case studies include SyBase, Mobile, Grolier, Sikorsky, Pinnacles, and several others. See the bibliography entry for book reviews and other details. [ISUG]

• Flynn, Peter. Understanding SGML and XML Tools. Practical Programs for Handling Structured Text. Foreword by Steve DeRose. Kluwer Academic Publishers SGML Bookshelf, Electronic Publishing Series. Dordrecht, Boston, & London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998. Extent: xxvi + 432 pages, CDROM. ISBN: 0-7923-8169-6. The book "is a practical guide to implementing SGML and XML, with precise procedures for making the most of the wide range of tools available. Programs are introduced in the context of the life cycle of a document, from creation, through validation, online display, searching and database, to printed delivery and repository storage. The text includes extensive examples of the tools discussed, showing the various output stages and the methods for producing them. The CDROM contains a range of SGML and XML tools, including design tools, editors, parsers, formatters, databases, converters, utilities, DTDs, DSSSL/XSL and other sample style specifications." See the bibliography entry.

• Gardner, John Robert; Rendon, Zarella L.. XSLT and XPath: A Guide to XML Transformations. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR. ISBN: 0-13-040446-2. xxii + 558 pages, with CD. The book "shows XML programmers how to use XSLT to transform XML documents. See the publisher's description and sample chapter "Anatomy of an XSLT Stylesheet."

• Goldfarb, Charles F.; Pepper, Steve; Ensign, Chet. SGML Buyer's Guide. A Unique Guide to Determining Your Requirements and Choosing the Right SGML and XML Products and Services. With contributions from consulting writers W. Eliot Kimber, John Chelsom, and Bob DuCharme. Charles F. Goldfarb Series On Open Information Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: PTR Prentice Hall, 1998. Extent: xxxvi + 1148 pages, CDROM disc. ISBN: 0-13-681511-1. The book has 39 chapters in 5 parts, and a "Sponsor Showcase" with informative 'white paper' advertising from 30 organizations that helped fund the publication. A superb and unmatched printed reference work that substantially incorporates the content of Steve Pepper's "Whirlwind Guide to SGML Tools and Vendors", and much more. See the main bibliography entry for reviews and other details.

• Goldfarb, Charles F.; Prescod, Paul. The XML Handbook. Foreword by Jean Paoli. The Charles F. Goldfarb Series on Open Information Management. The Definitive XML Series from Charles F. Goldfarb. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR, 1998. Extent: xlvi + 642 pages, CDROM. ISBN: 0-13-081152-1. The technical sections in this volume by Goldfarb, Prescod, Newcomb, and others are of very high quality, and can be unreservedly recommended. The case studies are illuminating and instructive. [abstract pending; see announcement]

• Graham, Tony. Unicode: A Primer. Foster City, CA: [M&T Books, An imprint of] IDG Books Worldwide, 2000. Extent: lii + 476 pages. ISBN: 0-7645-4625-2. Unicode: A Primer "is the first book devoted to the Unicode Standard Version 3.0 and its applications (other than the standard itself)." Endorsement of the book by Rick McGowan a Unicode Consortium Technical Director: "For developers who plan to use the Unicode Standard, this is the best companion book so far." The Unicode standard, as described by Tony Graham on his Unicode web site, "is a character encoding standard published by Unicode Consortium. Unicode is designed to include all of the major scripts of the world in a simple and consistent manner. The Unicode Standard, Version 3.0, defines 49,194 characters from over 90 scripts. It covers alphabetic, syllabic, and ideographic scripts, including Latin scripts, Greek, Cyrillic, Thai, ideographs unified from the scripts of China, Japan, and Korea, and Hangul characters used for writing Korean. The Unicode Standard also defines properties of the characters and algorithms for use in implementations of the standard." The book's complete Table of Contents, together with links to Unicode resources, is published on the companion Web site. See the main bibliographic entry.

• Harold, Elliotte Rusty. XML: Extensible Markup Language. Structuring Complex Content for the Web. Foster City/Chicago/New York: IDG Books Worldwide, 1998. Extent: xxiv + 426 pages, CDROM. ISBN: 0-7645-3199-9. "This book is an introduction to XML for HTML developers. It shows you how to write documents in XML and how to use XSL style sheets to convert those documents into HTML so legacy browsers can read them. You`ll also learn how to use DTDs to describe and validate documents." [author's note] See the description and TOC.

• Herwijnen, Eric van. Practical SGML. 2nd edition. Boston/Dordrecht/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1994. xx + 288 pages. ISBN: 0-7923-9434-8. One of the best general and introductory texts on SGML currently available. Available in print and also as an electronic book (SGML tutorial). See the bibliographic entry for details, including online Table of Contents. [ISUG]

• Holman, G. Ken. Introduction to XSLT (XSL Transformations). Crane Softwrights Computer Based Training Series. Third Edition. Crane Softwrights Ltd., 1999-06-08. Extent: 205 Pages. ISBN: 1-894049-00-4. The tutorial Introduction to XSLT (XSL Transformations) is a detailed overview of the Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations; it covers the entire 1999-04-21 W3C Working Draft of XSLT http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WD-xslt-19990421.html with references to James Clark's XT (19990514) and Microsoft's IE5 (5.00.2014.0216). See the detailed description.

• Jelliffe, Rick. The XML and SGML Cookbook. Recipes for Structured Information. The Charles F. Goldfarb Series on Open Information Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR, May 1998. Extent: 650 pages, CD-ROM. ISBN: 0-13-614223-0. [provisional description, and bibliography entry]

• Kay, Michael. XSLT Programmer's Reference. Wrox Series: 'Programmer to Progammer'. Chicago / Birmingham, UK: Wrox Press Inc., [April] 2000. ISBN: 1-861003-12-9. Extent: xiv +778 pages. Appendix A: Microsoft MSXML3; Appendix B: Glossary. 3 indexes [Elements, Functions, General]. "XSL (Extensible Stylesheet Language) is the styling language to match XML. XSLT Programmer's Reference is a compact, up-to-date, and relevant explanation of the W3C's XSLT and XPath recommendations. XSLT is notoriously difficult to understand, but this book provides code examples showing how it all ties together and can be effectively employed in a real world development scenario. At the most basic level it allows the programmer to manipulate XML on a template model - XSL provides the template to fit XML data into for displaying on a web page. However, it is capable of much more than that, and allows programmers to selectively query, display and manipulate data, perform scripting-like operations on the XML document and transform it into pure HTML for use on browsers which don't support XML." See the sample chapter (pages 9-43) "XSLT in Context."

• Leventhal, Michael; Lewis, David; Fuchs, Matthew; with Stuart Culshaw and Gene Kan. Designing XML Internet Applications. The Charles F. Goldfarb Series on Open Information Management. [Subseries:] The Definitive XML Series from Charles F. Goldfarb. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR, [May] 1998. Extent: xxxii + 584 pages, CDROM. ISBN: 0-13-616822-1. Since the book is written principally to guide programmers in their XML implementations, it organizes information about XML around concrete programming projects. General readers will gain insights from the book by attending to the higher level discussions on XML design issues, which are always in focus. See the bibliographic entry for other information, including the online description and Table of Contents.

• Light, Richard; North, Simon; Allen, Charles (et al.), with a Foreword by Tim Bray. Presenting XML. Indianapolis, IN: SAMS.NET [Sams Publishing, Macmillan Publishing USA], 1997. xxxi + 415 pages. ISBN: 1-57521-334-6. A reviewer writes that the book, through no fault of its own, "suffers from being a snapshot of a moving target, but [is] a worthy first volume in the soon-to-be-large XML library." Description: ". . .this reference takes you on an introductory tour of this robust technology, showing you how the technology can work to your advantage. You'll learn to create XML documents, separate style from content, and create power links with XML. In addition, you'll find out how XML is being used today and what impact it will have in the future. With Presenting XML, you'll get a quick, efficient introduction to XML and everything it has to offer, and you'll learn why this dynamic markup language is the wave of the future." [publisher's blurb] See provisionally the description from Macmillan's superlibrary.com server, or the announcement from Simon North. Check out the companion web site for updates and HTML/RTF/XML source; see the main bibliography entry for reviews and other information. [ISUG]

• Maler, Eve; El Andaloussi, Jeanne. Developing SGML DTDs: From Text to Model to Markup. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: PTR Prentice Hall, 1996. Extent: 560 pages. ISBN: 0-13-309881-8. The books offers detailed treatment of the 'SGML Document Type Definition (DTD) -- the formal specification that forms the foundation for every document based on the SGML language. This guide shows how to develop DTDs that work, based a proven methodology and techniques. It explains how DTD development benefits from the same rigorous treatment as software development: Articulate project goals, analyze requirements, write specifications, design and implement readable and maintainable code using good programming style, perform thorough testing, and document the work along the way' [text adapted]. See the main bibliographic entry for details, including link to the online table of contents. [ISUG]

• McGrath, Sean. PARSEME.1ST: SGML for Software Developers. Charles F. Goldfarb Series On Open Information Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR [Professional Technical Reference], 1997. Extent: 364 pages, CDROM disc. ISBN: 0-13-488967-3. "The book approaches SGML from the vantage point of the software developer. Many worked examples of SGML are provided using James Clark's NSGMLS parser. Applications are developed in a variety of tools including C++, Perl and Python. Every major feature of SGML is covered and particular emphasis has been placed on covering subtleties of the standard that can be troublesome to newcomers." See the bibliographic entry for links to the volume Preface, Table of Contents, author's summary, and other description.

• McGrath, Sean. XML by Example. Building E-Commerce Applications. The Charles F. Goldfarb Series on Open Information Management. The Definitive XML Series from Charles F. Goldfarb. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR, [June] 1998. Extent: xlviii + 476 pages, CDROM. ISBN: 0-13-960162-7. [abstract pending; bibliography entry]

• Megginson, David. Structuring XML Documents. Charles F. Goldfarb Series on Open Information Management. The Definitive XML Series from Charles F. Goldfarb. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR, [March] 1998. Extent: xxxviii + 425 pages, CDROM. ISBN: 0-13-642299-3. Price: US $39.95. The book is designed to help users apply XML and SGML to solve their document structuring problems. Specifically, readers will learn to: "1) analyze DTDs and adapt them for their specific processing needs; 2) build DTDs that are easier for others to learn, use, and process; 3) ensure structural compatability throughout their collection of enterprise DTDs; 4) use the new Architectural Forms standard to simplify complex DTD problems." See the online Table of Contents and overview of the book for details, or the bibliography entry.

• Pawson, Dave. XSL-FO: Making XML Look Good in Print. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly, August 2002. Extent: 282 pages. ISBN: 0-596-00355-2. "[The book] offers in-depth coverage of XSL-FO's features and strengths... teaches you how to think about the formatting of your documents and guides you through the questions you'll need to ask to ensure that your printed documents meet the same high standards as your computer-generated content..." See the description, table of contents, and sample Chapter 6.

• Ray, Erik T. Learning XML: (Guide to) Creating Self-Describing Data. O'Reilly, [February] 2001. Extent: 350 pages. ISBN: 0-596-00046-4. "In Learning XML, the author explains XML and its capabilities succinctly and professionally, with references to real-life projects and other cogent examples. Learning XML shows the purpose of XML markup itself, the CSS and XSL styling languages, and the XLink and XPointer specifications for creating rich link structures." [publisher's blurb] See the book's web site and the sample chapter online, "Markup and Core Concepts."

• Rubinsky, Yuri; Maloney. Murray. SGML on the Web: Small Steps Beyond HTML. Charles F. Goldfarb Series On Open Information Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: PTR Prentice Hall, 1997. Extent: 528 pages, CDROM (with SoftQuad Panorama Pro 2.0 and other software). ISBN: Paper (0-13-519984-0). SGML on the Webis described as an "Introduction to SGML for HTML Users," and it should serve the reader well for this purpose. It is structured as a series of tutorial lessons, each introducing the reader to HTML constructs in light of SGML's core notions, and leading in the direction of XML. Appendix A contains a revised and corrected version of SoftQuad's popular SGML Primer; the book also has an excellent glossary, and a list of Yuri's publications. The accompanying CDROM contains a complete copy of the SoftQuad Panorama Pro 2.0 SGML browser -- which should make the book highly attractive to buyers for this reason alone. See the bibliographic entry for reviews and other descriptions. [ISUG]

• Smith, Joan M. SGML and Related Standards. Document Description and Processing Languages. Ellis Horwood Series in Computers and their Applications. New York/London: Ellis Horwood, 1992. Extent: xviii + 152 pages. ISBN: 0-13-806506-3. The book supplies a valuable survey of the inter-relationships between SGML and its suite of related standards. It represents an informed perspective -- that of Joan Smith, who served as a leading SGML advocate in the UK for many years. See the bibliographic entry for additional details. [ISUG]

• Smith, Norman E. Practical Guide to SGML Filters. Plano, TX: Wordware Publishing, 1996. Extent: 450 pages, 2 diskettes. ISBN: 1-55622-511-3. "The book provides an introduction to the subject of developing filter programs for manipulating SGML data. Discussions include five programming languages that are commonly used for SGML filter development and several case studies of developing filter programs both to and from SGML. Each case study is solved in at least two of the five languages. The diskettess include the OmniMark Sampler, Perl, AWK, and several SGML utilities." See the main bibliographic entry.

• St. Laurent, Simon. XML: A Primer. Foster City, CA: MIS Press/IDG Books, 1998. Extent: xx + 348 pages. ISBN: 1-5582-8592-X. "A derivative of SGML, XML will give Web designers the power of SGML scripting without the complexity. Developers will be able to manage information with increased power and flexibility not before possible with HTML. This essential guide will show Web developers how to take advantage of this powerful new technology quickly and painlessly. Techniques for integrating XML with new Web technologies such as Dynamic HTML and Cascading Style Sheets are discussed. Readers will learn to create search tools, Document Type Definitions (DTDs), customized tags, and commercial Web solutions." [book cover] Also in Korean, Japanese, and Italian translation. See the bibliographic entry.

• St. Laurent, Simon; Biggar, Robert. Inside XML DTDs: Scientific and Technical. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1999. Extent: xii + 468 pages, CDROM. ISBN: 0-07-134621-X. The book "provides a guide to XML with a sharp focus on scientific and technical applications of this new technology. In addition to XML itself, MathML, a core W3C standard that can be used in many fields, receives extended coverage. The second half of Inside XML DTDs: Scientific and Technical explores emerging XML standards and tools in a number of fields, including biology, chemistry, astronomy, library science, and meteorology." See the main bibliographic entry.

• Tittel, Ed; Mikula, Norbert; Chandak, Ramesh. XML for Dummies. Foreword by Dan Connolly. Foster City, CA: IDG Books Worldwide, Inc., 1998. Extent: xxviii + 367 pages, CDROM. ISBN: 0-7645-0360-X. "XML For Dummies shows you how to use XML to improve the interactivity of your Web site, accommodate special or complex data,and take control over your document structure. Exploit the capabilities of XML to make your data easy to manage and transmit across the Web; find the best XML resources and tools, on- and offline; use predefined XML markup or customize XML to suit your own needs; extend and enhance tags for frames, tables, forms, links, and other sophisticated markup language elements; integrate back-end applications, such as databases." See the bibliographic entry for references to reviews and other details.

• Travis, Brian E.; Waldt, Dale C. The SGML Implementation Guide: A Blueprint for SGML Migration. Berlin/New York: Springer-Verlag, 1995. xxiv + 552 pages. ISBN: 0-387-57730-0; 3-540-57730-0. "The philosophy behind this book is to provide a pragmatic working knowledge of SGML and related disciplines and techniques needed to actually achieve a successful implementation. . .The book is not a review of products, but it does contain mention of some products as an example of what is available. It is not an executive briefing offering a high-level view of the advangates of implementing a structured approcah to data, nor is it a nuts-and-bolts description of how to write SGML applications. Rather, it strikes a ground between those two extremes, offering to the people who must make the decision to implement, then the implementors, enough information to get well down the road to SGML." [authors' description] See the bibliographic entry for abstract, reviews, and HTTP links to the full text of the Table of Contents and sample chapters.

• Turner, Ronald C.; Douglass, Timothy A.; Turner, Audrey J. README.1ST: SGML for Writers and Editors. Charles F. Goldfarb Series On Open Information Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR, 1995. xxi + 241 pages, diskette. ISBN: 0-13-432717-9. "This is a non-technical introduction to SGML for writers and editors who need to work in an SGML environment. The focus is not on the technical details of the standard but rather on how writers and editors can benefit from and work effectively with SGML. Included with the book is a diskette that contains SGMLAB, a DOS-based SGML application that includes a parser and browser and numerous sample SGML documents. Using SGMLAB, readers can view on-line both the structure and output of SGML documents, and validate those documents." [publisher's description] See the bibliographic entry for detailed overview and published book reviews. [ISUG]

• Vint, Danny R. SGML at Work. [A Start-to-Finish Real-World Guide to Implementing SGML/XML Systems and Strategies.] Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall PTR, [July] 1998. Extent: xvi + 848 pages, CD-ROM and SGML REference Card. ISBN: 0-13-636572-8. "In this book you will find detailed explanations of how to write conversion tools, how to develop a DTD, how to implement some of the industry's best products, and how to integrate various tools into a working environment." See the Web site for the book (volume description and Table of Contents) and the main bibliography entry.

• von Hagen, Bill. SGML for Dummies. For Dummies, Computer Book Series from IDG. Foster City, CA / Chicago, IL / Southlake, TX: IDG Books Worldwide, 1997. Extent: xxiv +386 pages, CDROM. ISBN: 0-7645-0175-5. The book offers an introduction to SGML in non-technical language, in a humorous style. Sometimes imprecise, but often more readable for non-specialists than other introductory texts on SGML. The CDROM disc contains: (1) A 90-day demo version of Corel WordPerfect; (2) demo version of Digitome's IDM Personal Edition; (3) sample SGML applications from SGML Systems Engineering - SGMLC; (4) James Clark's SP parser for Win 95/NT; (5) a 45-day demo version of the HyBrowse Browser; (6) sample DTDs. See the bibliographic entry for other details. [ISUG]

• Walsh, Norman; Muellner, Leonard. DocBook: The Definitive Guide. The Official Documentation for DocBook. Sebastopol, California: O'Reilly and Associates, 1999. Extent: xiv + 638 pages, CDROM. ISBN: 1-56592-580-7. "This book is the complete and official documentation of the DocBook Document Type Definition (DTD) and many of its associated tools. DocBook is a system for writing structured documents using SGML and XML. DocBook, provides all the elements you'll need for technical documents of all kinds. A number of computer companies use DocBook for their documentation, as do several Open Source documentation groups, including the Linux Documentation Project (LDP). With the consistent use of DocBook, these groups can readily share and exchange information. With an XML-enabled browser, DocBook documents are as accessible on the Web as in print." See the Web site and the book announcement.

• Wilde, Erik; Lowe, David. XPath, XLink, XPointer, and XML: A Practical Guide to Web Hyperlinking and Transclusion. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley Professional, July 23, 2002. ISBN: 0-201-70344-0. 304 pages. "Part I provides a conceptual framework highlighting current and emerging linking technologies, hypermedia concepts, and the rationale behind the 'open' Web of tomorrow. Part II covers the specifics behind the emerging core standards, and then Part III examines how these technologies can be applied and how the concepts can be put to efficient use within the world of Web site management and Web publishing." Chapter 6 of the book ("XML Pointer Language," pages 139-168) is available online. See the website description. The website transcluding.com is maintained by the authors in support of the book.

Studies on HyTime

• DeRose, Steven J.; Durand, David G. Making Hypermedia Work: A User's Guide to HyTime. Boston/Dordrecht/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1994. xxii + 384 pages. ISBN: 0-7923-9432-1. HyTime is an ISO standard (ISO/IEC 10744) and is an application of SGML for hypermedia and other time-based documents. A very readable introduction to SGML is provided in Chapter 3 of the book (pages 35-61), "Overview of SGML." See the bibliographic entry for details. [ISUG]

• Ferris, Ralph E.; Newcomb, Victoria Taussig (ed). HyTime Application Development Guide. Version 1.2.4. San Jose, CA and Rochester, NY: Fujitsu Open Systems Solutions and TechnoTeacher, Inc., February 27, 1996. Extent: 8 chapters, approximately 106 pages. The Guide clarifies the relationship between SGML and HyTime, shows how HyTime constructs can be used to extend the basic capabilities of SGML, and describes some of the basic features of HyTime, with examples. The document is available in PostScript format from TechnoTeacher's FTP server. Version 1.2 of the document is also available in PDF format through PHOENIX DATA LABS.

• Kimber, W. Eliot. Practical Hypermedia: An Introduction to HyTime. Charles F. Goldfarb Series On Open Information Management. New York: Prentice-Hall Professional Technical Reference, [forthcoming 1997]. ISBN: 0-13-309899-0. Approximately 250 pages. See the fuller entry for details. Eliot Kimber's HyQ tutorial, HyTime and SGML: Understanding the HyTime HyQ Query Language, is very useful meantime.

SGML Resources on CDROM

Many of the recently-published books on SGML contain an accompanying CDROM disc with SGML related software and other information. Here are some useful stand-alone CDROM resources.

• SoftQuad, Inc. The SGML World Tour. Toronto, Ontario: SoftQuad, Inc., Spring, 1994. ISBN: 1-896172-01-6. This CDROM publication stores a large and valuable library of SGML resources on CDROM disk. including sample SGML applications. See the full entry for details.

• Exoterica Corporation. The Compleat SGML. CD-ROM disc. Ottawa, Ontario: Exoterica Corporation, August, 1993. This hypertext tool for Microsoft Windows (using an Asymetrix Toolkit) links the full online text of the ISO8879:1986 SGML standard with 2348 SGML test documents and other SGML resources. See the bibliographic entry for fuller description.

• The SGML University Board of Regents. SGML Power Tools. Denver, Colorado: SGML University Press, 1997. ISBN: 0-9649602-0-6. The Power Tools is now an annual publication. "The CD-ROM is full of information, applications, software demonstrations, and other resources needed to get started using SGML. Leading companies in the SGML industry provide information about their products, and some have included demonstration software or outright free software on the disc." See the full bibliographic entry for details.