Publish SGML documents

There are several possiblities to publish (that is, convert to a human-readable form) SGML documents. The Document Style Semantics and Specification Language (DSSSL) is one of these methods to apply some kind of formatting rules to a SGML document. Jade, another piece of software written by James Clark, is the DSSSL application of choice for us. Jade is a modular application which can use several backends to create the kind of output that we need. Jade can create RTF (Rich Text Format, a sort of interchange format which is understood by most Windows and some Unix word processors), TeX (Donald Knuth's famous layout and typesetting engine), and MIF (FrameMaker format) output. It can also perform SGML-to-SGML transformations which can be used to create HTML output.

In the case of RTF, MIF, and HTML output, this is all you need. In the case of TeX output, we'll need a complete TeX system including the TeX interpreter itself, a previewer, and tools to convert the TeX output to PostScript or PDF format. We'll use a Win32 port of the TeX system called fpTeX. As PostScript is a useful cross-platform file format, we'll also need a software to preview these files. The GhostScript and GhostView utilities also allow to print PostScript files on a variety of non-PostScript printers.