Page 105 - Electronic Commerce

Chapter 2

SGML
80
Standard Generalized Markup Language
First standards established in 1986

HTML

Hypertext Markup Language XML
First standards established in 1991
Extensible Markup Language
First standards established in 1998

Learning

XHTML
Extensible Hypertext Markup Language Cengage
First standards established in 2000
2015
©
FIGURE 2-5 Development of markup languages
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a not-for-profit group that maintains
standards for the Web, presented its first draft form of XML in 1996; the W3C issued its
first formal version recommendation in 1998. Thus, it is a much newer markup language
than HTML. In 2000, the W3C released the first version of a recommendation for a new
markup language called Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML), which is a
reformulation of HTML version 4.0 as an XML application. The Web Links include a link
to the W3C XHTML Version 1.0 Specification.

Markup Languages
Since the 1960s, publishers have used markup languages to create documents that can be
formatted once, stored electronically, and then printed many times in various layouts that
each interpret the formatting differently. U.S. Department of Defense contractors also
used early markup languages to create manuals and parts lists for weapons systems. These
documents contained many information elements that were often reprinted in different
versions and formats. Using electronic document storage and programs that could
interpret the formats to produce different layouts saved a tremendous amount of retyping
time and cost.
A Generalized Markup Language (GML) emerged from these early efforts to create
standard formatting styles for electronic documents. In 1986, after many elements of the
standard had been in use for years, the International Organization for Standardization
(ISO) adopted a version of GML called SGML. SGML offers a system of marking up
documents that is independent of any software application. Many organizations, such as

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