*************************************************************** ****************** WELCOME TO SGML NEWSWIRE ******************* *************************************************************** * * * To subscribe, send mail to sgmlinfo@avalanche.com * * * * (Please pass along to interested colleagues) * * * *************************************************************** BYTE: FLEXIBILITY IS SGML'S KEY =============================== The following are excerpts from a 7-page article in the September issue of BYTE. The trend is to expand the information content of data and leverage that content in ways never before possible... To squeeze more content into data, the structure of data has had to evolve. Bit for bit, a document is one of the richest forms of content, yet only recently has it been put to work as a computable data type. "Only about 10 percent of all data is in a form computers traditionally deal with," says Bill Arms, vice president of computing services at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "The other 90 percent is in documents, and the vast majority of those are still of the paper rather than the electronic variety...." Tagging languages and compound document architectures are emerging as the two main strategies for making documents computable across applications and platforms. The most widely used tagging language is SGML... Mark Walter, a consultant for Seybold Publications (Media, PA), cites SGML's flexibility as a reason for its prominence. "SGML has caught on the fastest [of all the tagging languages], thanks to its versatility and adaptability to a variety of applications," says Walter... "In the old days, exchanging documents meant filtering text. But now that word processors and desktop publishing programs routinely include graphics with their documents, exchanging these files without a standard file format for interchange is becoming increasingly difficult. New, object-oriented technologies promise to change the way we create and interchange documents..." Moving beyond computing that information packaging restricts means that your knowledge-based activities can use a common technology to exchange, expand on, and react to your data. Soon, the idea of building an application around a particular data type may seem arbitrary and, perhaps, even a bit primitive." [Note: Square brackets appear in the original text] BYTE, "Unlocking Data's Content," Randall D. Cronk, September 1993. ************************************************************** * SGML NEWSWIRE LIST MANAGER * * * * Linda Turner * * Corporate Communications * * Avalanche * * 947 Walnut Street * * Boulder, CO 80302 * * sgmlinfo@avalanche.com * * linda@avalanche.com * * Vox: (303) 449-5032 * * Fax: (303) 449-3246 * **************************************************************