Jin Park

Abstract

The Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) has been the International Organization of Standardization (ISO) published standard for text interchange for nearly a decade. Since 1986, SGML based publishing has been successfully implemented in many fields, notably those industries with massive and mission-critical publishing operations such as the military, legal, medical, and heavy industries. SGML based publishing differs from the WYSIWYG paradigm of desktop publishing in that an SGML document contains descriptive, structural markup rather than specific formatting markup. Specific markup describes the appearance of a document and is usually a proprietary code which makes the document difficult to re-use or interchange to different systems. The structurally generic markup codes in an SGML document allow the fullest exploitation of the information. An SGML document exhibits more re-usability than a document created and stored in a proprietary formatting code. In many cases, workflow and production are greatly improved by the implementation of SGML based publishing. Historical and anecdotal case studies of many applications clearly delineate the benefits of an SGML based publishing system. And certainly, the boom in Web publishing has spurred interest in enabling a publishing system with multi-output functionality. However, implementation is associated with high costs. The acquisition of new tools and new skills is a costly investment. A careful cost-benefit analysis must determine that the current publishing needs would be satisfied by moving to SGML. Increased productivity is the measure by which SGML is adopted. The purpose of this thesis project is to investigate the relative benefits and requirements of a simple SGML based publishing implementation. The graduate thesis for most of the School of Printing Management and Sciences at the Rochester Institute of Technology was used as an example. The author has expanded the requirements for the publication process of a graduate thesis with factors which do not exist in reality. The required output has been expanded from mere print output to include publishing on the World Wide Web (WWW) in the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), and to some proprietary electronic browser such as Folio Views for inclusion in a searchable collection of graduate theses on CD-ROM. A proposed set of tools and methods are discussed in order to clarify the requirements of such an SGML implementation.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Electronic publishing; SGML (Document markup language); Dissertations, Academic--Data processing

Publication Date

2-1-1996

Document Type

Thesis

Advisor

Not listed

Comments

Note: imported from RIT’s Digital Media Library running on DSpace to RIT Scholar Works in December 2013. Physical copy available through RIT's The Wallace Library at: Z286.E43 P37 1996

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

Download

Share

COinS