An Overview of Electronic Publishing and Extensible Markup Language (XML)
John Kane
Joseph R. Makuch
Many knowledge-based organizations are expanding their publishing
efforts to include electronic publishing. This article gives evidence of
this move and discusses the factors that have been instrumental in promoting
electronic publishing. The importance of information stucture and adherence
to open standards are emphasized as critical components of digital document
management systems. The development and use of Standard Generalized Markup
Language (SGML) and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) are discussed along with
their strengths and weaknesses astools of electronic publishing. An emerging alternative, Extensible Markup
Language (XML), is described as having features that may reduce some of the
impediments to producing and managing documents digitally.
The authors are with the U. S. Department of
Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, National Agricultural Library in
Beltsville, Maryland. John Kane is Coordinator of Electronic Publishing and
Archiving , the Information Systems Division. Joseph R. Makuch, an ACE member,
is Coordinator of the Water Quality Information Center.
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