EBT Press Releases

EBT Press Releases

EBT ANNOUNCES PLANS TO SUPPORT IMPORTANT NEW PUBLISHING STANDARD: DSSSL

EBT Also Announces Plans to Support New MIME Application for SGML and DSSSL Lite Application of DSSSL

GMUNDEN, AUSTRIA (SGML EUROPE '95) May 16, 1995 -- In yet another example of its standards-based philosophy, Electronic Book Technologies, Inc. (EBT, Booth # 25) today announced plans to incorporate support for the Document Style Semantics and Specification Language (DSSSL) in the next major release of DynaText(tm), EBT's industry leading standards-based online publishing system. EBT also plans to support "DSSSL Lite," currently being proposed as the stylesheet language for the World-Wide Web (Web), and Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) SGML, soon to become a standard for the distribution of SGML documents over the Internet. DSSSL Lite and MIME SGML will be supported in a future release of DynaWeb(tm), EBT's high-function SGML Web server software.

"DSSSL promises to revolutionize high-end document processing, much as SGML has done, and DSSSL Lite will bring DSSSL's strengths within everyone's reach," said Steven J. DeRose, Ph.D., Senior Systems Architect, EBT. "As these standards take hold, we can expect to see great improvements in interactive electronic documents, whether on CD-ROM, the Internet, or any other electronic medium," continued DeRose.

DSSSL (ISO/IEC standard 10179) is expected to be published by the end of the summer; it has already been balloted and passed by the ISO member bodies. The main objective of the DSSSL standard is to provide a specification language for expressing formatting and other document processing specifications in a formal and interchangeable manner so that these specifications may be processed by a broad range of formatters.

DSSSL Lite is a DSSSL application that is currently under consideration as the stylesheet language for the Web. Goals for the DSSSL Lite stylesheet format include: the ability to attain reasonable presentation of SGML documents using a wide range of Document-Type Definitions (DTDs); enough simplicity to be compelling to the Web community for implementation in a wide variety of products; a smooth path to stylesheets with much greater functionality; an entirely graphical stylesheet editor; and the ability to have simple hardcopy output, although the emphasis is online delivery.

MIME SGML is an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) 'work in progress' that will soon become a standard for the distribution of SGML documents over the Internet. MIME provides for a number of facilities, such as multiple objects in a single message, representing body text in character sets other than US-ASCII, representing formatted multi-font text messages, and representing non-textual information such as images and audio.

DynaText, introduced in 1990, is the world's leading SGML-based on-line publishing system. DynaText accepts any valid SGML document and automatically builds a dynamic electronic book that enables users to quickly browse, search and annotate large documents. DynaText electronic books can include hyperlinks, tables, equations, graphics, audio, video and animation. DynaText electronic books can be shared on heterogeneous client/server networks or placed on standalone workstations. DynaText runs on Microsoft(R) Windows(tm) and Apple Macintosh(R) systems, as well as all major UNIX(R) platforms.

DynaWeb is a server-side tool that links DynaText publishers' electronic books to existing Web client browsers. DynaWeb connects DynaText electronic books to the Internet, adds powerful search and navigation functionality to the multitude of Web client browsers through fully exploiting the SGML structures already in place in DynaText electronic books, and does so in a manner that is efficient and sustainable.

EBT(tm) provides corporate and commercial publishers with the industry's most comprehensive standards-based on-line publishing solution. EBT, a founding member of SGML Open and the MIT World-Wide Web Consortium (W3C), has developed a product suite engineered from the ground up around SGML. DynaText, EBT's flagship product, currently resides on millions of desktops through widespread deployment by Autodesk, Borland, Legent, Novell, Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG, Sun Microsystems, Sybase, AT&T, Australian Telecom, British Telecom, Ericsson Telekom, Nokia Telecom, and Northern Telecom. EBT is privately held and headquartered in Providence, RI, USA.

Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) is an international ISO standard for the publication and delivery of electronic information. SGML has been adopted by industries with large amounts of in-house publishing including aircraft, airlines, automotive, computer, defense, electronics, pharmaceuticals, securities, telecommunications and transportation, as well as government systems integrators, publishing companies, and academic research centers.

Media contacts:

Markus Wachsmuth
EBT S.A.
Geneva, Switzerland
+[41] (22) 788 6550

Paul Lamoureux
EBT
Providence, RI, USA
(401) 421-9550

DynaText and DynaWeb are trademarks of Electronic Book Technologies, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, exclusively licensed through X/Open Company Ltd.