Totally agree in principle. But XML editors are still a
major limiting factor, as are the cost of SGML editors.
I use HTML for everything at the moment, but I am
champing at the bit to switch to XML. In addition to
the XmlEditor paper at my site, I'm about to post
another paper that includes even more interesting-
and-unusual editing requirements.
Some sort of extensible editing system is turning out
to be a true necessity, rather than a luxury, if we
are to make use of these technologies.
Jack Park wrote:
>
> I am shamelessly forwarding this post to Unrev. Many good ideas here,
> most
> of which we have discussed before. But now, it's coming from a
> well-known
> person of the knowledge rep persuasion.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: John F. Sowa <sowa@bestweb.net>
> To: <standard-upper-ontology@ieee.org>; <cg@cs.uah.edu>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2001 10:49 AM
> Subject: SUO: HTML, XML, and DocBook for beginners
>
> >
> > In some previous notes, I have made the claim that conventional word
> > processors (especially ones that use proprietary formats) are
> obsolete.
> > As a replacement, I recommended that people switch their word (or
> text)
> > processing methods to SGML and its derivatives, including HTML and
> XML.
> >
> > Some people have challenged my claim, protesting that not everybody
> > is qualified to use such difficult tools. My response is that the
> > internal format (whether XML or proprietary) has no effect whatever
> > on ease of use. But it has an enormous impact on ease of exchange,
> > transmission, flexibility, reproducibility, and especially
> longevity.
> >
> > As an example of longevity, I should mention that I have been using
> > GML (the predecessor to SGML) for nearly 30 years. And every one
> > of my GML files can be converted to HTML or SGML or XML with simple
> > global changes with any ASCII editor. (I have also automated
> > those changes with a very simple Python program.)
> >
> > As an example of professional formatting, I would recommend that
> > people take a look at my 1984 book on Conceptual Structures, for
> which
> > I produced the camera-ready copy using only a plain-text editor and
> > a GML formatter. The quality of formatting on an IBM mainframe in
> 1983
> > is still superior to any commercially available word processor
> today.
> >
> > Furthermore, with my handy-dandy Python program, I can convert any
> > chapter or page of that text to HTML. As an example, I recommend
> > my tutorial on math & logic, which is a revised and updated version
> > of Appendix A of that book:
> >
> > http://www.bestweb.net/~sowa/misc/mathw.htm
> >
> > Has anyone tried to convert any 10 or 15-year old file to MS Word?
> > Or has anyone tried to convert any version of MS Word to a version
> > that was two years older? Or four years newer?
> >
> > For an easy intro to HTML, I recommend:
> >
> > http://kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu/www/doc/htmldoc.html
> >
> > For the newest version of StarOffice (the forthcoming 6.0), which
> > uses XML as its native format, and which can import files from more
> > versions of MS Word than any version of MS Word, and which runs on
> > many more platforms than MS Word, and which is, best of all, FREE:
> >
> > http://www.openoffice.org/
> >
> > And for professional-quality formatting of books and high-quality
> > web pages, I recommend DocBook (which also uses XML as its base):
> >
> > http://www.docbook.org/
> >
> > This is the formatting system that O'Reilley uses for all their
> > books, and it is being widely adopted by many other publishing
> > and documentation groups.
> >
> > And best of all, these systems are all FREE, high-quality,
> universal,
> > non-proprietary, and guaranteed not to become obsolete in two years.
> >
> > John Sowa
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Feb 27 2001 - 19:12:55 PST