SGML, Standard Generalized Markup Language (ISO 8879 came on the scene in 1986 and was adopted by publishers who understood the value of working in an open, standardized environment. SGML was not an easy step for any publisher to take, but the benefits of SGML were clear enough to drive adoption by many major publishers. XML, a simplified dialect of SGML that had been optimized for the Web, was not widely adopted by publishers already using SGML. In fact today, most of the users of XML are outside the publishing environment.

Now, 12 years after the adoption of SGML by many publishers, the SGML-based publishing environments are becoming archaic and need to be replaced. Publishers who remain happy with the ISO SGML standard face questions from management and IT departments about a transition from SGML to XML. This paper presents the methodology used by a major publishing house to make publishing technology decisions for their next-generation publishing systems. SGML or XML? Schemas or DTDs? Learn how you can take an organized approach to making these decisions.