Standard Generalized Markup Language

From "The Concise SGML Companion Glossary (Neil Bradley), www.bradley.co.uk :

SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) - The ISO 8879 standard developed in 1986 to assist electronic delivery and publication of text-based documents. Classified under `Information processing - Text and office systems'. Developed and maintained by the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC18/ WG8 committee.

From "A Gentle Introduction to SGML," edited by C. M. Sperberg-McQueen and Lou Burnard (etext.virginia.edu ):

SGML is an international standard for the description of marked-up electronic text. More exactly, SGML is a metalanguage, that is, a means of formally describing a language, in this case, a markup language.

Might also stand for "Sounds Good, Maybe Later", a joke referring to SGML's intimidating complexity.

Created originally in 1969. See The SGML History Niche for details of SGML's early development. www.sgmlsource.com

Try the Extensible Markup Language (XML), which is less complicated. XML was originally intended to be a 'simplification' of SGML (80% of the power with 20% of the complexity).

Category Glossary Category Definition

See original on c2.com