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Finally--The Building Blocks of the Web Are Easy to Understand

For release: On Receipt
Contact: Pascale Dechamps, + 32 81 226 270, <psol.be/go/contact>

NAMUR, BELGIUM: When we read a book or an article, design elements like headings and body copy tell us how much weight to give to each part, where to pause for a breath, and when we're done. In a printed document, we get the visual cues from bold, centering, larger type, and so forth.

But more and more documents are being prepared using SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language)--and its descendants, HTML and XML, including every one of the tens of millions of documents on the World Wide Web.

SGML is a radically different approach to document structure from type specification for print--one that lends itself to more automation and thus faster processing. Instead of creating a style such as bold, the user inserts a descriptive tag, such as Heading. Once a document is tagged, the individual pieces can be formatted by defining the tags, and reformatted by changing the definitions. Thus, a document need only be tagged once, and the content can be re-purposed for websites, brochures, posters, sales presentations, book chapters, and any other kind of document you can imagine.

Getting the hang of SGML can be intimidating. But now, Pineapplesoft, of Namur, Belgium, has released An Introduction to SGML: SGML in Plain English, a concise guide to getting started with the concepts and tagging codes of SGML and its Web-friendly children, HTML and XML. Written by Pineapplesoft CEO Benoît Marchal, a software engineer and writer, the guide is available as an electronic download for just $8.99 U.S. (Marchal's first book, XML By Example, will be published by computer publisher Que Press later this year.)

Eases readers through concepts like DTDs, elements, entities and parameters. When you finish you'll say, "hey, that wasn't so bad!"
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An Introduction to SGML may be ordered at <psol.be/lib/2003/0909a.html>.

Journalists: to obtain a review copy or arrange an interview with Marchal, please write <psol.be/go/contact>

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Last update: Octobre 1999.
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