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"So, well over a decade ago, seeking to ameliorate its mind-boggling need for technical documentation, the Navy embraced XML's ancestor SGML and others followed suit. The Navy eventually contributed to numerous standards -- for example, the CALS tables in DocBook, and the HyTime standard (parts of which live on in XLink) were each influenced by the needs of the military."
The CALS initiative was a DoD initiative. The CALS standards were developed by tri-service working groups which included the Army, Navy and Air Force. The CALS table model was a result
the military standard of MIL-PRF-28001C. CALS table model was adopted by DOCBOOK, as well as TEI, ISO 12074, AECMA, ATA, etc. because it was the only comprehensive table model available universally.
HyTime is not a DoD or Navy standard. HyTime is an ISO standard (ISO 10744). HyTime was adopted by the Tri-Service Working group as the linking
mechanism for the IETM (Interactive Electronic
Technical Manual) specifications.
A lot has been written both positively and
negatively about the CALS initiative. I
believe that without CALS we wouldn't have
the explosion of XML. Here is an excerpt from
Tim Berners Lee proposal for the "Global Hypertext Project" in 1989.
<quote>
Incentives and CALS
The US Department of Defence has given a big incentive to hypermedia research by, in effect, specifying hypermedia documentation for future
procurement. This means that all manuals for parts for defence equipment must be provided in hypermedia form. The acronym CALS stands for
ªComputer-aided Acquisition and Logistic Support).
</quote>
Because of the current e-gov initiatives,
many think that XML is new to the government.
Quite the contrary, the government has been
using and embracing SGML/XML for many many
years.
There are too many successful initiatives within governments (US, Canada, UK, Australia, Japan, etc.) to mention. There are a lot of government initiatives that are on the web that individuals don't realize are actually XML in the backgroun. For example MEDLINE (NIH) is a
premium medical resource that uses XML. The
American Memory Collection (http://memory.loc.gov) at the Library of Congress is another good example of the use of XML. Also, check out http://xml.house.gov to find out about work that is happening at the House of Representatives.
Betty Harvey
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