From: gtn@ebt-inc (Gavin Nicol)
Subject: Re: A New Era of Afforable Tools
Date: 1995/06/10
Message-ID: <GTN.95Jun10022744@ebt-inc>#1/1
distribution: world
references: <3r2h8t$9gn@pubxfer4.news.psi.net> <9506071502.AA31001@source.asset.com>
organization: Electronic Book Technologies, Inc.
newsgroups: comp.text.sgml


>The use of SGML in it's original form in opinion will be restricted
>to individual industries and companies.  They will develop their
>unique DTDs for internal use. The public documents will still use
>SGML, but it will follow the HTML format.

I very much doubt that this will prove to be the case in the long
run. For the first 2 years or so, you may be absolutely correct, but
eventually, HTML will be used primarily for publishing home pages and
whatnot, and (SGML|RTF|PDF|whatever) will be used for everything
else. Large documents with long lifespans will almost certainly be in
SGML (or something similar).

>I find the need for DTDs for every document I receive to be a problem
>I would rather not address.  Give me a format, i.e., HTML version
>1,2, n or whatever

Only because you have to manage them. Once retreival of DTD's and
stylesheets, and all other such mundane tasks becomes automatic, I
doubt you, as an end-user, could distinguish between HTML, RTF, or
SGML. 

On the other hand, I also doubt that documents, as we use the term
today, will be around in 10-15 years, so most of the SGML vs RTF vs
HTML vs PDF etc. wars are, in the long run, meaningless.


--

Gavin Thomas Nicol                | He who will not reason, is a bigot;
Electronic Book Technologies      | he who cannot is a fool; 
Email:      gtn@ebt.com           | and he who dares not is a slave. 
Phone/FAX:  +81-3-3706-7351       |       --- Sir William Drummond