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Greetings from the chair
To the members of the W3C SGML Working Group, welcome and thank you
for your patience during construction of the mailing list.
Our business will begin in earnest immediately following the Labor Day
holiday in the U.S. (September 2). You will be provided at that time
with an organized framework within which to conduct a discussion of an
SGML application profile for Web use. In the meantime, you can start
by familiarizing yourself with the W3C SGML ERB/WG charter [1] and the
current statement of design principles [2]. You may also wish to
review the current DSSSL Online Application Profile [3].
The SGML ERB/WG has three explicit deliverables:
1. The specification of an application profile defining a form of SGML
designed for Internet transmission and processing by user agents. For
purposes of discussion, the format thus defined has been given the
temporary working name of Extensible Markup Language (XML). The ERB
has set an ambitious goal of completing the initial draft for this
specification by the SGML 96 conference (November 18-22).
2. The specification of basic hypertext link types for XML. These
types have yet to be identified, but a basic goal is to go beyond the
single link type in HTML to include the types that have been
considered essential in hypertext systems for the last decade. It
seems apparent that achieving this goal implies the implementation of
the basic functionality of the HyTime clink and ilink architectural
forms, but whether the mechanism used is architectural forms or
extensions to DSSSL remains an open question to be dealt with after
the initial XML specification draft has been completed.
3. The specification of extensions and public text needed to make
DSSSL work in an Internet context. For example, a mechanism needs to
be added to DSSSL to enable text to flow around objects.
We will be taking these one at a time, beginning with #1. Be prepared
for an extremely interesting discussion of this subject beginning next
week.
[1] http://www.textuality.com/sgml-erb/tr-1996-01.html
[2] http://www.textuality.com/sgml-erb/dd-1996-0001.html
[3] ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/sun-info/standards/dsssl/dssslo
Jon
---
Jon Bosak, Online Information Technology Architect
Sun Microsystems, 2550 Garcia Ave., MPK17-101, Mountain View, CA 94043
Davenport Group::SGML Open::ANSI X3V1::ISO/IEC JTC1/SC18/WG8::W3C SGML ERB