BKRMSGML.RVW   960309
 
"README.1ST: SGML for Writers and Editors", Turner/Douglass/Turner, 1996, 0-13-
432717-9
%A   Ronald C. Turner swa@comtch.iea.com
%A   Timothy A. Douglass swa@comtch.iea.com
%A   Audrey J. Turner swa@comtch.iea.com
%C   One Lake St., Upper Saddle River, NJ   07458
%D   1996
%G   0-13-432717-9
%I   Prentice Hall
%O   800-576-3800, 416-293-3621, +1-201-236-7139 fax: +1-201-236-7131
%P   241
%S   Charles F. Goldfarb Series on Open Information Management
%T   "README.1ST: SGML for Writers and Editors"
 
My own book first started life as a seminar outline and notes.  It then
developed into a serially published column on the net.  In the second edition,
I put in a lot of hours with the typesetting company, trying to determine the
best format for printing not terribly well defined objects such as fully
qualified domain names (FQDN) and URLs (Uniform Resource Locators).  If I'd
done the book (properly) in SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) in the
first place, a lot of this would have been a lot easier.  A properly structured
SGML document can be used to produce appropriate designations for, say, a URL
in both a Usenet postings (which has very limited formatting possibilities) and
a book (which has considerably more).  It can also make the modification of
such a designation much easier, and have it take affect throughout an entire
document at the next generation.
 
Those who are familiar with SGML will consider this to be an overly lengthy and
unnecessary introduction.  In the same way, they might consider the first three
chapters of this book expended on the "selling" of SGML to be inessential.  On
the other hand, while I was doing my own review of this book, I happened across
a review by someone else, and they had obviously missed the point entirely. 
SGML is not merely a formatting language like TeX or even HTML, but a way to
concentrate on what a piece of writing does, and let the downstream machinery
take care of what it eventually needs to look like.
 
This is because "README.1ST" is the first work to be written for the non-
technical end user of SGML: the writer or editor.  There are a number of
concepts to be raised, and paradigm shifts in the way the production of
documents is to be viewed.  (One can hear echoes of writers objecting to this
emphasis on "structure" in the repeated exhortation that the use of structure
does not have to stifle creativity.)  The authors have put in a lot of work,
ensuring that the dedicated, if naive, student can understand SGML and how it
works.
 
Dedication *is* going to be required of the newcomer.  It takes a while to
realize that *any* piece of writing has a design.  This book, in fact, might
not be only for writers and editors.  I strongly suspect that teachers of
English, composition and even creative writing would find ideas in this
material that will assist students in striving for excellence in communication.
 
copyright Robert M. Slade, 1996   BKRMSGML.RVW   960309
 
====================== 
roberts@decus.ca   Rob.Slade@f733.n153.z1.fidonet.org  rslade@vanisl.decus.ca
               Crossbows don't kill people, quarrels kill people
Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" 0-387-94663-2 (800-SPRINGER)