by Martin Bryan, The SGML Centre
[Martin sits on the SGML Users' Group delegation to WG8]
Activity at the July meeting of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC18 WG8.
The final text of the standard for the conformance testing of SGML documents (ISO/IEC 13673) was reviewed at the Dublin meeting of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC18 WG8. Some minor changes were made to ensure that features being used by DSSSL and HyTime could be fully described.
The text for the Draft International Standard defining a Standard Music Description Language (SMDL) has been submitted to ISO for review. This standard provides architectural forms that can be used to describe music, and shows how HyTime can be used to inter-link music with scores and critical analysis of musical performances.
An SGML Document Query Language (SDQL) has been defined as a result of the work carried out to harmonize DSSSL and HyTime. The new query language will combine features from the existing HyQ and DSSSLQ languages to provide a comprehensive method for identifying subcomponents of an SGML document. The harmonization work has also resulted in an enhanced model for describing SGML document components.
An extended set of properties for describing SGML documents is to be defined in the DSSSL standard and the HyTime standard is to be amended to reference this extended list. In addition, parts of the HyTime standard are to be moved into separate annexes so that they can be easily referenced from DSSSL and related standards.
A new MIME encoding type has been defined to allow SGML documents to form a clearly identified part of an Internet message. The release of a free SGML document browser (SoftQuad's Panorama) as an add-on to commonly used WWW browsers such as Mosaic, Netscape, and Spyglass means that SGML-coded documents can now be efficiently interchanged electronically.
The first committee draft (CD) of ISO/IEC 13240, which defines a Standard Hypermedia/Multimedia Scripting Language (SMSL), has not been released for public comment. The CD is disappointing in that it represents a watering down of the original working drafts without any attempt to supply the predefined classes that are proposed to provide a usable standard.
