CSA ISO/IEC 10179
Information Technology - Processing Languages - Document Style Semantics and Specification Language (DSSSL)
| Organization: | CSA |
| Publication Date: | 1 January 1996 |
| Status: | active |
| Page Count: | 309 |
| ICS Code (IT applications in information, documentation and publishing): | 35.240.30 |
scope:
This International Standard is designed to specify the processing of valid SGML documents.
DSSSL defines the semantics, syntax, and processing model of two languages for the specification of document processing:
a) The transformation language for transforming SGML documents marked up in accordance with one or more DTDs into other SGML documents marked up in accordance with other DTDs. The specification of this transformation process is fully defined by this International Standard.
b) The style language, where the result is achieved by applying a set of formatting characteristics to portions of the data, and the specification is, therefore, as precise as the application requires, leaving some formatting decisions, such as line-end and column-end decisions, to the composition and layout process.
The DSSSL style language is intended to be used in a wide variety of environments with typographic requirements ranging from simple single-column layouts to complex multiplecolumn layouts. This International Standard does not standardize a formatter nor does it standardize composition or other processing algorithms. Rather, it provides the means whereby an implementation may externalize 'style characteristics' and other techniques for associating style information with an SGML document.
DSSSL provides a mechanism for specifying the use of 'external processes' to manipulate data. The nature of these processes is outside the scope of DSSSL, but may include typical data management functions, such as sorting and indexing; typical composition functions, such as hyphenation algorithms; and graphics or multimedia processes for non-SGML data.
Documents that have already been formatted or do not contain any hierarchical structural information or generic markup are not within the field of application of this International Standard.
DSSSL expresses specifications to be performed by some processor that accepts an input document and produces an output document. DSSSL is independent of the type of formatter, formatting system, or other transformation processor.
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