Re: HTML Documents (SGML text)

James D Mason (MASONJD@oax.a1.ornl.gov)
Mon, 15 May 95 10:49:09 EDT

The text of ISO 8879:1986 is, like that of all ISO standards, held under
copyright and so is not available the way Internet RFCs is available. There is
no distributable electronic copy of the standard, not even for those of us on
the committee responsible for maintaining it. (ISO makes their money from
selling copies of their standards.)

In general I would not, however, advise acquiring the text from ISO. You get
much more value for your money buying a licensed, derivitive product (not that
any form is cheap). Charles Goldfarb's book "The SGML Handbook" (Oxford
University Press) contains the complete text, with commentary, for not much
moe than ISO charges for the text alone. Exoterica Corp. (Ottawa) sells a
hypertext version on their "Compelat SGML" CD-ROM. Both of these are also
available from the Graphic Communications Association, Alexandria Virginia.

Dr. James D. Mason
(ISO/IEC JTC1/SC18/WG8 Convenor)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Information Management Services
Bldg. 2506, M.S. 6302, P.O. Box 2008
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6302 U.S.A.
Telephone: +1 615 574-6973
Facsimile: + 1 615 574-6983
Network: masonjd@ornl.gov