1

Scope

This International Standard:

(a) Specifies an abstract syntax known as the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). The language expresses the description of a document's structure and other attributes, as well as other information that makes the markup interpretable.

(b) Specifies a reference concrete syntax that binds the abstract syntax to specific characters and numeric values, and criteria for defining variant concrete syntaxes.

(c) Defines conforming documents in terms of their use of components of the language.

(d) Defines conforming systems in terms of their ability to process conforming documents and to recognize markup errors in them.

(e) Specifies how data not defined by this International Standard (such as images, graphics, or formattd text) can be incl uded in a conforming document.

NOTE - This International Standard does not:

(a) Identify or specify ""standard"" document types, document architectures, or text structures.

(b) Specify the implementation, architecture, or markup error handling of conforming systems.

(c) Specify how conforming documents are to be created.

(d) Specify the data stream, message handling system, file str ucture, or other physical representation in which conforming documents are stored or interchanged, or any character set or coding scheme into or from which conforming documents might be translate d for such purposes.

(e) Specify the data content representation or notation for images, graphics, formatted text, etc., that are included in a confor ming document.