/////\\\\\////\\\\////\\\\////\\\\////\\\\////\\\\///\\\/\ \ / \ Welcome to the SGML Newswire! \ / / \ To subscribe, send email to sgmlinfo@boulder.ileaf.com \ \ with body of message SUBSCRIBE 'your emailaddress' / / To unsubscribe, send message 'unsubscribe' \ \ To receive SGML FAQ, send message 'send FAQ' / / \ \ To receive a current table of contents, and / / instructions for ordering back issues, \ \ specify 'send toc' in the body of your / / message. Please also pass along info \ \ to interested colleagues. / / \ ////\\\\////\\\\////\\\\////\\\\////\\\\////\\\\///\\\\/// MAINSTREAM SGML - MARY LAPLANTE: ================================ The following article is reprinted with permission from the weekly analysis published by the Document Software Strategies Service at CAP Ventures, copyright (c) 1996 by CAP Ventures. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Mainstream SGML Two weeks ago, Bill [Zoellick] began a discussion regarding the relationship between the markets for SGML and document management. His piece previewed a detailed analysis that will be included in the series of reports on our 1996 compound document management research. Microstar Software's announcements regarding Mainstream SGML for Content Management at this week's Seybold conference give us an opportunity to continue that discussion and to examine one of the market realities facing the vendor and user communities. Mainstream SGML is an architecture for deploying information management and publishing applications that are designed to hide the complexity of SGML. The basic concept isn't new: let users interface with off-the-shelf application software that is capable of dealing with structured information in a reasonable way, then use transformer scripts to do the complex processing on the back end. The architecture has three components: - front-end document creation systems that are "author- centered." The idea is to generate a user-friendly version of a complex DTD and to map it to a word-processing template, or "authoring model." The model enables guided authoring with familiar desktop tools. - a repository for storing the documents. - transformation tools that can generate fully-compliant SGML documents, HTML documents, or files for publishing on CD-ROM or paper. What makes Mainstream SGML interesting are its timing, the partnerships that support it, and Microstar's positioning of its own products and technologies within the architecture. Microstar has announced Mainstream SGML at a time when the user and vendor communities are getting serious about addressing the issue of SGML's complexity. We have long acknowledged that implementing SGML is hard, that the initial investments are significant, and that payback is over the long term. But it seems that only recently has the reality really sunk in. SGML must become easier to implement and use in order to sustain and grow the market for tools and technologies that support it. With Mainstream SGML, Microstar and the program's partners are formalizing these issues. And about those Mainstream SGML Solutions Partners: announcing relationships this week were Adobe Systems, Documentum, and InfoAccess. Adobe brings SGML and non-SGML authoring and publishing systems to the party, along with page-oriented document distribution. Documentum's EDMS provides content management capabilities, and InfoAccess delivers HTML conversion with HTML Transit, a product that's doing very well for the company at the moment. These partners bring credibility as well as functionality to Mainstream SGML. In turn, Mainstream SGML gives them an SGML story while maintaining their positions as, well, mainstream technology suppliers. What's in it for Microstar? Software licenses, primarily. The company's Near & Far Author for Microsoft Word will be offered as a front-end authoring system, and Near & Far Designer, its graphical tool for creating the authoring models, is a key component of deploying a Mainstream SGML system. As an open architecture, however, users can plug in a variety of word processors, even Adobe's FrameMaker. The Designer product is unique, though, and should go along with any system implementation. Microstar also stands to benefit from being recognized as the originator of an initiative to really move SGML into the mainstream. The big question, of course, is whether or not the users and the vendors will buy into the program. -- Mary Laplante ------------------------------------------------------------------ Thanks, Mary. ////\\\\////\\\\///\\\///\\\\////\\\\///\\\\///\\\\///\ \ / / SGML NEWSWIRE LIST MANAGER \ \ Sue Martin-Gamble, Interleaf / \ 4999 Pearl East Circle, Ste 100 \ / Boulder, Colorado 80301 / \ VOX 303/449-5032 x 109 \ / FAX 303/449-3246 / / / ////\/\/\/\/\//////\\\\////\\\\////\\\\////\\\\//\\\\\/ ** For article submision, email sue@boulder.ileaf.com **