kragen-history-of-markup: Difference between revisions
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''This page is still skeletal. Perhaps some of it should move to a "history" or "background" page?'' | |||
= SGML = | |||
Starting in 1969 and throughout the 1970s, [http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/sgmlhist0.html Charles Goldfarb, Edward Mosher, Raymond Lorie, and others created GML], the Generalized Markup Language, at IBM. It was a meta-language for domain-specific document formats with semantic information, which could be used for flexible stylesheet-based formatting (somewhat like other systems around the same time, such as [http://www.tug.org/ Don Knuth's T<sub>E</sub>X] and Brian Reid's Scribe) as well as more database-like applications, such as composing tables of contents, or searching a corpus of case law by its citations. | Starting in 1969 and throughout the 1970s, [http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/sgmlhist0.html Charles Goldfarb, Edward Mosher, Raymond Lorie, and others created GML], the Generalized Markup Language, at IBM. It was a meta-language for domain-specific document formats with semantic information, which could be used for flexible stylesheet-based formatting (somewhat like other systems around the same time, such as [http://www.tug.org/ Don Knuth's T<sub>E</sub>X] and Brian Reid's Scribe) as well as more database-like applications, such as composing tables of contents, or searching a corpus of case law by its citations. | ||
Throughout the 1980s, GML | Throughout the 1980s, GML developed into SGML under the auspices of ANSI, and was widely used in document-intensive businesses. But SGML's complexity, and the necessity to write a DTD specific to your application area, inhibited its wider use. | ||
... | = HTML = | ||
HTML began in 1992 as [http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/MarkUp/MarkUp.html one particular SGML DTD], used for marking up hypertext documents including headers, lists, and a very few other things. Over the next several years, wide (if ad-hoc) user-agent support led HTML documents to outnumber other SGML documents by a very wide margin. Unfortunately, since HTML is only an application of SGML, it lacked SGML's ability to represent the semantics of a document at any deeper level than tables, lists, emphasized words, and headings. [http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html3/CoverPage.html HTML3] was a 1994 attempt to remedy this situation by adding many more semantic elements to the language, including semantic markup for navigational banners, quotations, persons, variable names, figure captions, mathematical formulae, and admonishments, in addition to most of the parts of HTML we use today. | |||
= XML = | |||
''XML'' | ''XML'' | ||
''CSS'' | ''CSS'' | ||
= Microformats = | |||
At ETCon 2004, Tantek and Kevin Marks gave [http://tantek.com/presentations/2004etech/realworldsemanticspres.html a talk entitled "real world semantics"] --- before they invented the "microformats" term, but the presentation covers [[xoxo|XOXO]], [[xfn|XFN]], [http://geourl.org/ GeoURL], blogchalking, [[rellicense|CC rel="license"]], VoteLinks. Subsequently [http://wiki.oreillynet.com/etech/index.cgi?RealWorldSemantics they held a BoF session] which apparently had more than the three participants listed. The next week, they presented a lightning-talk version of the same talk at ConCon 2004. In 2005, Tantek gave [http://tantek.com/presentations/2005/03/elementsofxhtml/ an SXSW talk entitled "The elements of meaningful XHTML"]. | At ETCon 2004, Tantek and Kevin Marks gave [http://tantek.com/presentations/2004etech/realworldsemanticspres.html a talk entitled "real world semantics"] --- before they invented the "microformats" term, but the presentation covers [[xoxo|XOXO]], [[xfn|XFN]], [http://geourl.org/ GeoURL], blogchalking, [[rellicense|CC rel="license"]], VoteLinks. Subsequently [http://wiki.oreillynet.com/etech/index.cgi?RealWorldSemantics they held a BoF session] which apparently had more than the three participants listed. The next week, they presented a lightning-talk version of the same talk at ConCon 2004. In 2005, Tantek gave [http://tantek.com/presentations/2005/03/elementsofxhtml/ an SXSW talk entitled "The elements of meaningful XHTML"]. | ||
Revision as of 04:36, 15 July 2005
This page is still skeletal. Perhaps some of it should move to a "history" or "background" page?
SGML
Starting in 1969 and throughout the 1970s, Charles Goldfarb, Edward Mosher, Raymond Lorie, and others created GML, the Generalized Markup Language, at IBM. It was a meta-language for domain-specific document formats with semantic information, which could be used for flexible stylesheet-based formatting (somewhat like other systems around the same time, such as Don Knuth's TEX and Brian Reid's Scribe) as well as more database-like applications, such as composing tables of contents, or searching a corpus of case law by its citations.
Throughout the 1980s, GML developed into SGML under the auspices of ANSI, and was widely used in document-intensive businesses. But SGML's complexity, and the necessity to write a DTD specific to your application area, inhibited its wider use.
HTML
HTML began in 1992 as one particular SGML DTD, used for marking up hypertext documents including headers, lists, and a very few other things. Over the next several years, wide (if ad-hoc) user-agent support led HTML documents to outnumber other SGML documents by a very wide margin. Unfortunately, since HTML is only an application of SGML, it lacked SGML's ability to represent the semantics of a document at any deeper level than tables, lists, emphasized words, and headings. HTML3 was a 1994 attempt to remedy this situation by adding many more semantic elements to the language, including semantic markup for navigational banners, quotations, persons, variable names, figure captions, mathematical formulae, and admonishments, in addition to most of the parts of HTML we use today.
XML
XML
CSS
Microformats
At ETCon 2004, Tantek and Kevin Marks gave a talk entitled "real world semantics" --- before they invented the "microformats" term, but the presentation covers XOXO, XFN, GeoURL, blogchalking, CC rel="license", VoteLinks. Subsequently they held a BoF session which apparently had more than the three participants listed. The next week, they presented a lightning-talk version of the same talk at ConCon 2004. In 2005, Tantek gave an SXSW talk entitled "The elements of meaningful XHTML".