DOCBOOK-APPS: Re: SGML vs XML

[Norman Walsh <ndw at nwalsh dot com>]

/ fyl2xp1 <vnhu38f93@subdimension.com> was heard to say:
| Advantages:
|
| XML is the "wave of the future", we can either ride it or sink?
| XML is more Internet oriented, the future is more Internet oriented?
| XML is simpler and perhaps less cumbersome than SGML?
| XML is easier to write tools for so the future will bring a bounty of them?

Certainly far more XML tools exist now and will exist in the future. I
won't say that "no new SGML tool will ever be written" because someone
will surely point one out, but I'm confident in saying that the number
of XML tools being developed vastly overshadows the number of SGML
tools.

| XML implements Unicode which is rapidly becoming the new standard?

It is an I18N standard, I don't think there's any "becoming" about it.
(That's not the same as saying everyone always uses it, but that's not
really important. You can use Big5 or Shift-JIS locally and convert to
Unicode for exchange.)

| The SGML DocBook will eventually dissappear.

Well, I doubt it'll disappear in my lifetime. Legacy lasts. But new
development of the SGML version will probably cease eventually (for
some value of eventually).

| Disadvantages:
|
| SGML is a maturer technology hence is regarded as better?

If you stick to the bits of XML that have been proven by 10+ years of
SGML experience, I don't think this argument holds.

| The SGML DocBook toolchain is easier to configure and setup?

That's not my reading of the situation.

| It is much easier to create printable output using the SGML toolchain?

The free tools for producing print output are more mature, but that's
not relevant to SGML vs. XML. You can use XML and still use those
tools.

| The XML tools are mostly written in JAVA which is slow?

And portable. :-)

| There are tools available to convert SGML to XML anyway so this is no bother?

Because SGML is dead.

| The DocBook XML syntax is so similar to the DocBook SGML syntax
| that conversion would be no bother?

That's generally true. Tools like sx can convert from SGML to XML. And
it wouldn't be too hard to convert XML back to SGML either.

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

-- 
Norman Walsh <ndw@nwalsh.com>      | Decide, v.i. To succumb to the
http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/ | preponderance of one set of
Chair, DocBook Technical Committee | influences over another
                                   | set.--Ambrose Bierce