The Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML): An Application for OSI

There is a myriad of OSI standards, all of which are developed for the sake of the applications that sit at the seventh layer. One such application is a new international standard for full-text data base publishing, the Standard Generalized Markup Language or SGML. This paper gives details of its pedigree and potential value to the publishing community, where many documents start life in an office environment.Suitable for traditional publishing and in-house publishing, it can be used for a multiplicity of products including reports, manuals, books, and directories. Updating the documents held in the data base can lead to subsequent editions, and secondary publications can be produced by retrieval of selected parts from a family of documents. An example of the use of SGML is given, this being the design of a basic document type.