Near&Far
(MicroStar)A standalone visual (graphical) SGML DTD design
tool, originally for Microsoft Windows
95. N&F made it very easy to prototype a
new document type, although later stages of development
were usually hand-tuned. It was also an excellent tool for
displaying the structure of a newly-encountered DTD. When
XML arrived, they kept the internal SGML model but
provided a ‘save-as’ in XML
syntax.
Many current design tools have similar embedded
functionality (eg XML Spy), but
there is no equivalent standalone tool of the same
quality. A development to use
RelaxNG to generate different
syntaxes would be a major advance.
MicroStar was bought by OpenText Corp and the
product was dropped on the floor just at the point when it
would have been most useful. If you have a copy (one was
embedded in the WordPerfect SGML/XML editor), it still
executes under XP, and in Codeweavers'
Wine under Linux.
DynaWeb (EBT)A family of products:
DynaBase, the underlying SGML
database; DynaWeb, a Windows
server with a graphically-managed stylesheet system for
serving XML or SGML converted to HTML, and an excellent
markup search facility; and
DynaTag, a GUI system for
converting Word and
Frame documents to SGML or XML,
based on the original
RainbowMaker commandline
converter.
EBT was bought up by Inso Corp, and the product
was ignored for several years. However, a page on Indo's
server now claims to provide details, but it is not known
if the product is still available. It appears that they
inherited some users, so for a while they still had a
DynaWeb training page.
The good news is that Red Bridge Software now
occupies the old EBT factory (under the Red Bridge in
Providence, RI), selling a content management system that
includes DynaTag and some other
elements of the original range.
Panorama
(SoftQuad)An SGML browser from SoftQuad
with an SGML-syntax stylesheet which worked both
standalone and as a Netscape plugin, based on Synex
Viewport. This let users open
direct links to SGML documents:
Panorama would download both
instance and DTD via an entity resolver, perform a
tokenised parse, and apply the specified
stylesheet.
Its unique features included switching between
multiple stylesheets, a search result density indicator,
and the ability to implement double-ended HyTime links,
which let anyone publish their own set of links, even
multi-ended links, and even between documents that they
didn't own. The browser plugin was free, and the full
version included the stylesheet editor.
SoftQuad faltered after Yuri Rubinsky passed away,
and was taken over by Corel
(WordPerfect), where the
product was ignored.
SoftQuad's
Author/Editor SGML editor
product transmuted into XMeTaL,
which is still available from JustSystems.
