[Mirrored from: http://www.grif.fr/newsref/sympress.html]

GRIF S.A. Announces Grif Symposia

Darmstadt, April 10, 1995 - GRIF S.A., the leading European SGML company, announces Grif Symposia, the first ever structured document authoring tool to allow SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) documents to be edited over the World Wide Web.

GRIF S.A. announces Grif Symposia, the first WYSIWYG SGML authoring tool for the World Wide Web. Grif Symposia can be used to produce documents both in the World Wide Web's HTML format or in SGML, the full ISO standard on which HTML is based. By enabling documents to be edited directly over the World Wide Web, Grif Symposia opens the way for global collaborative authoring on the Internet.

Grif Symposia is aimed at business users who want to take advantage of the World Wide Web's distributed hypermedia system on the Internet but who have found the Web's HTML (HyperText Markup Language) format too limited for the distribution of technical and other mission-critical documents. Grif Symposia combines HTML hypertext linking with GRIF S.A.'s proven WYSIWYG SGML authoring technology and allows documents to be edited directly over the Web either in HTML format or in SGML.

"By combining our SGML technology with the World Wide Web and allowing documents to be saved directly over the Web, we have effectively created the first global collaborative authoring tool," declared Bertrand Mélèse, President of GRIF S.A. Many business documents are the result of the collaborative work of several individuals. With Grif Symposia, these individuals can now work together effectively to create fully structured commercial or technical documents and make them available for consultation worldwide as soon as they are completed. "With Grif Symposia, it will soon be just as easy to create and distribute SGML documents on the World Wide Web as it is possible today to view HTML documents with browsing tools such as NCSA Mosaic or NetScape™," said Mr Mélèse. Grif Symposia was developed in close collaboration with theINRIA resarch institute, joint head of the recently created Web consortiumand a leading player in the development of World Wide Web technology.

"GRIF S.A. has more than five years experience in providing SGML authoring and integration solutions to international companies," said Jean-Charles d'Harcourt, GRIF's VP Marketing. "We see Grif Symposia as a great opportunity to bring the benefits of SGML to a much wider audience."

Availability and Pricing Grif Symposia is a complete structured document authoring tool for the World Wide Web which combines HTML hypertext linking with GRIF S.A.'s existing WYSIWYG SGML authoring technology. It is a fully supported commercial product and is available for UNIX/Motif,and soon for PC/Windows and Apple Macintosh. The price of Grif Symposia will be comparable with GRIF's existing range of SGML authoring tools. An upgrade to Grif Symposia will be available for current users of Grif SGML Editor.

Symposia Pro is a fully supported commercial product aimed at users who are looking for all the benefits of direct on-the-web WYSIWYG editing of HTML documents. Symposia Pro is available for UNIX/Motif,and soon for PC/Windows and Apple Macintosh, at a cost of US$495. Symposia is free version of Symposia Pro and will be available from INRIA (http://symposia.inria.fr) for UNIX/Motif following the Third International World Wide Web Conference in Darmstadt, Germany (April 10-14, 1995). Versions for other platforms will follow in mid-1995.

GRIF is thus able to offer its customers open solutions that handle the entire electronic document life cycle. GRIF's SGML solutions are successfully operational today in a wide range of businesses including: Airbus Industrie (aerospace), Electricité de France (power stations), La Marine Nationale (French Navy), Dassault Aviation (aerospace), Deutsche Aerospace (aerospace), France Telecom (telecommunications), Caisse de Dépôts et Consignations (finance), Fritzes (legal publishing), Mutualité Sociale Agricole (insurance) and European Mathematical Trust (research).