At the Advanced Procurements Logistics Systems 1994 conference held in London, the Xsoft software division of Xerox Corp announced its UK launch of Incontext Inc’s eponymous Windows-based structured document publishing software. Xerox believes that there is a huge potential market for Standardised Generalised Mark-up Language, which sets specifications for information exchange and standards in computer-assisted publishing. Central to the Mark-up Language is the concept of separating the structure of a document from its style of presentation. The document becomes very flexible as its components can be easily rearranged for different purposes. The language was first used in the Computer Aided Logistics Supply initiative, the US Army’s attempt to integrate the latest defence procurements with existing forces and standardise manuals and technical data. It has since spread into the automotive, aerospace, pharmaceutical, telecommunications and semiconductor industries and the market for it is expected to grow in Europe by 30% over the next five years. Much of the progress in the Mark-up Language for technical standards has been mandated by US and European regulatory bodies and it is the International Standards Organisation standard for structured documents. For example, the US government’s Clean Air Act demands that all technical data relating to exhaust emissions must adhere to the SGML standard and President Clinton has committed his government to adopt and implement electronic information standards by July 1997. However, there has also been progress towards the standard within individual industries, as companies recognise the benefits to be gained from standardising language. Incontext, the product, will enable the user to create, edit and manipulate documents by pouring text, graphics, tables or charts into any Document Type Definition structure that complies with the standard. All the parts of the document will be automatically tagged according to the standard. XSoft is hoping that the claimed user-friendliness of the product will attract a much wider audience for this previously very inaccessible standard.
