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    The Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) is a metalanguage in which one can define markup languages for documents. SGML is a descendant of IBM's Generalized Markup Language (GML), developed in the 1960s by Charles Goldfarb, Edward Mosher and Raymond Lorie (whose surname initials also happen to be GML). SGML and GML should not be confused with the Geography Markup Language developed by the Open GIS Consortium or the Game Maker scripting language.

    SGML provides a variety of markup syntaxes that can be used for many applications. By changing the SGML Declaration one does not even need to use "angle brackets" although they are the norm, the so-called concrete reference syntax.


        Standard Generalized Markup Language
            Original uses
            Syntax
                HTML
                XML
                Docbook
                Other
            See also
    NameStandard Generalized Markup Language
    ScreenshotImage:OED-LEXX-Bungler.jpg
    CaptionA fragment of the OED (1985), showing SGML ma...
    Mimetext/sgml
    Uniform Typepublic.xml
    Genremetalanguage
    Extended FromGeneralized Markup Language
    Extended ToHTML, XML

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    Original uses
    SGML was originally designed to enable the sharing of machine-readable documents in large projects in government, legal and the aerospace industry, which have to remain readable for several decades—a very long time in information technology. It has also been used extensively in the printing and publishing industries, but its complexity has prevented its widespread application for small-scale general-purpose use.
    Primarily intended for text and database publishing, one of its first major applications was the second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, which was and is wholly marked up in SGML.

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    Syntax

    SGML syntax example:

    typically something like this


    SGML is an ISO standard: "ISO 8879:1986 Information processing—Text and office systems—Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML)".

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    HTML
    HTML was originally designed based on SGML tagging but without SGML's emphasis on rigorous markup. It was later reformulated (at version 2.0) to be an application of SGML, although there's some debate on whether it ever actually became one.

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    XML
    XML is derived from SGML and covers a broad spread of applications. XML is a profile—a specific subset of SGML, designed to be simpler to parse and process than full SGML, and to have more lightweight
    internationalization. XML is a simplification of SGML for general-purpose applications, such as the Semantic Web. XML has been used for a large number of applications, including notably XHTML, RSS, Atom, XML-RPC and SOAP.

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    Docbook
    Another markup language originally created as an application of SGML is DocBook, designed for authoring technical documentation. DocBook is now also available as an XML application.

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    Other
    There are also a number of languages that are related in part to SGML and XML, but, because they cannot be parsed or validated or otherwise processed using standard SGML and XML tools, cannot be considered to be applications of SGML or XML. One example is the Z Format, a language designed for typesetting and documentation.

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    See also
     
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    Scientus.org Dictionary (Yet Another Wiki) RC : 1.39
    This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License [copyleft]. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Standard Generalized Markup Language". link