SGML format standardisation

The Translation Theory and Technology (TTT) initiative has provided a document type definition (DTD) for the description of terminology in the standard generalised markup language (SGML), ISO.

The initiative is concerned with the establishment of data exchange standards that allow various tools to interoperate, allowing the integration of tools from multiple vendors in the multilingual document production chain.

The DTD is referred to as MARTIF, a format to facilitate the interchange of terminological data among terminology management systems. This format is the result of several years of intense international collaboration among terminologists and database experts from various organizations, including academic institutions, the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), and the Localisation Industry Standards Association (LISA). MARTIF, also known as ISO 12200, is associated with ISO Technical Committee 37, and refers to the ISO specifications detailed above, particularly ISO 12620.

The aim of the MARTIF specification is:

a universally applicable format for the negotiated interchange of structured terminological data among various applications, system environments, and hardware platforms. It is primarily designed for use with terminological data that can be stored, read, retrieved, and manipulated by a computer. (ISO DIS 12200.2:1)

The following table showing the core of the MARTIF DTD is adapted from the TTT web site.

<!ENTITY %AuxInfo      'descrip | descripGrp | admin | adminGrp | ptr | ref | note' >

<!ELEMENT body      -- (termEntry+) >

<!ELEMENT termEntry -- (%AuxInfo;)*, (tig | ntig)+) >
<!ATTLIST termEntry    %a.global; type CDATA #IMPLIED >

<!ELEMENT tig       -- (term, (termNote)*, (descrip | admin | ptr | ref | note)*) >
<!ATTLIST tig          id ID #IMPLIED lang CDATA #REQUIRED >

<!ELEMENT ntig      -- (termGrp, (%AuxInfor;)*) >
<!ATTLIST ntig         id ID #IMPLIED lang CDATA #REQUIRED > 

<!ELEMENT termGrp   -- (term, (termNote | termNoteGrp | ptr |
                                     ref | note)*) >
<!ATTLIST termGrp      %a.global; type CDATA #IMPLIED >

<!ELEMENT termNoteGrp -- termNote, (ptr | ref | note)*) >
<!ATTLIST termNoteGrp    %a.global; >

<!ELEMENT descripGrp  -- (descrip, (ptr | ref | note)*) >
<!ATTLIST descripGrp     %a.global; >  

<!ELEMENT adminGrp    -- admin, (ptr | ref | note)*) >
<!ATTLIST adminGrp       %a.global; >

<!ELEMENT term        -- (%bText;) >
<!ATTLIST term           %a.global; type CDATA #IMPLIED >

<!ELEMENT termNote    -- (%nText;) >
<!ATTLIST termNote       %a.global; type CDATA #IMPLIED >

<!ELEMENT descrip     -- (%dText;) >
<!ATTLIST descrip        %a.global; type CDATA #IMPLIED >

<!ELEMENT admin       -- %bText;) >
<!ATTLIST admin       -- %a.global; type CDATA #IMPLIED >

 
• A document example