Standard Generalized Markup Language
lastmod 2022-08-16created 2021-06-083 edits
SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) is a metalanguage for defining markup languages for documents. It is the successor to GML (Generalized Markup Language), developed by IBM in the 1960s, and is an ISO standard.
SGML provides a variety of markup syntaxes to support many applications. Because it is even possible to avoid angle brackets ('<', '>') by changing the SGML declaration, it is also called the concrete reference syntax.
SGML was designed for sharing machine-readable documents in large-scale projects by governments and aerospace companies, and to remain readable for decades or more. SGML was widely used in the printing and publishing industries, but its complexity was an obstacle to small-scale, general-purpose use.
See also
- Web Programming
- TeX
- Extensible Markup Language (XML)
- HyperText Markup Language (HTML)
- Document type definition