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<result><section shorttitle="What is SGML?">
<title>What <emph>is</emph> SGML in the grand scheme of the universe, anyway?</title>
<intro>
<para>SGML defines a strict markup scheme with a syntax for defining
document data elements and an overall framework for marking up
documents.</para>
<para>SGML can describe and create documents that are not dependent on
any hardware, software, formatter, or operating system. Since SGML documents
conform to an international standard, they are portable.</para></intro></section><section shorttitle="How does SGML work?">
<title>How is SGML and would you recommend it to your grandmother?</title>
<intro>
<para>You can break a typical document into three layers: structure,
content, and style. SGML works by separating these three aspects and
deals mainly with the relationship between structure and content.</para></intro>
<topic topicid="top4">
<title>Structure</title>
<para>At the heart of an SGML application is a file called the DTD, or
Document Type Definition. The DTD sets up the structure of a document,
much like a database schema describes the types of information it
handles.</para>
<para>A database schema also defines the relationships between the
various types of data. Similarly, a DTD specifies <emph>rules</emph>
to help ensure documents have a consistent, logical structure.</para></topic>
<topic topicid="top5">
<title>Content</title>
<para>Content is the information itself. The method for identifying
the information and its meaning within this framework is called
<emph>tagging</emph>. Tagging must
conform to the rules established in the DTD (see <xref xrefid="top4"/>).</para>
<graphic graphname="tagexamp"/></topic>
<topic topicid="top6">
<title>Style</title>
<para>SGML does not standardize style or other processing methods for
information stored in SGML.</para></topic></section></result>