CHAPTER 2 SGML/XML:

INTRODUCTION

Effectively, the World Wide Web accommodates only 1 document type -- HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). But with SGML or XML specs, people from all fields or academic subjects can create their own document types and markup languages to better exchange information in their field (music, chemistry, finance, linguistics, literature, history, electronics, etc.)

Indeed, major software companies are rushing to design SGML and XML software -- in particular, Microsoft's Internet Explorer 4.0 and 5.0 Web browsers have basic XML capability, Netscape's Communicator 5.0 Web browser will be released this year and be XML-capable, and Word Perfect 8 has extensive SGML software.

Currently, IATH (The Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville) is one of many research groups working with SGML/XML, and preparing SGML/XML software, for computer-based humanities study.

A powerful example of SGML's capability can be found in IATH's "William Blake Archive," which features SGML-encodings of the writings and pictorial works of English poet and painter William Blake (1757-1827). The SGML markup allows users to create advanced database queries of the Archive's contents (both written works and pictorial works), with the results returned quickly to the user. Extremely advanced database capability is another benefit of SGML's content markup tags.

IATH's "Rossetti Archive" features SGML-encodings of the writings and paintings of 19th-century poet and painter D.G. Rossetti. (Pictorial works are marked up with tags which specify medium, dimensions, frame, etc.). The SGML markup includes full scholarly annotations and notes. The Archive's web site even features a simple "virtual reality" model of Rossetti's studio, allowing students to "walk around" inside the studio (assuming, of course, that a VRML plug-in has been added to the user's web browser). The Rossetti Archive's web page features a search function, which relies on the Archive's SGML markup.

IATH's "The World of Dante" web site features an advanced structured search capability for Dante's Inferno. In addition, the site also features a virtual reality (VRML) wire-frame model of Dante's Inferno, with colored triangles representing persons, creatures, etc., positioned according to Canto number and occurrence. The user chooses which types of inhabitants are to be displayed, even specifying subclasses (e.g., mythical persons, historical persons, etc.). The SGML markup allows these choices to be located quickly in the text, and the appropriate inhabitants are then injected into the virtual reality model. The user can then "fly around" inside the model. This allows students to get a visual feel for how the inhabitants being studied are situated and referenced in Dante's work.

(The above sites will be examined in detail, in Chapter 4.)

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