SUMMARY
SGML enabled Silicon Graphics to design and develop IRIS
InSight, an industry-leading system for delivering online
documentation, while achieving its objective of significantly
reducing the costs of providing that information to customers.
But the transition to SGML involved a steep learning curve. We
had to define an SGML-based publishing process in terms of steps
or functions like authoring, format conversion, indexing,
viewing, and information management so that we could select or
design software to support each activity. This process
characterization took place iteratively, because we didn't have a
complete end-to-end perspective when we started out. When
candidate tools were identified and "plugged into" a tentative
end-to-end solution, the requirements for other pieces were often
unknowingly changed or constrained. We didn't fully appreciate at
the time that the publishing process was both a technological and
an organizational creation that would require significant changes
at Silicon Graphics.
The expertise required to design and develop IRIS InSight
was substantial. We hired numerous consultants, but their
participation then imposed the additional task of integrating
their different perspectives and expertise into what we were
doing on our own.
The substantial increase in the visibility of SGML
technology and concepts today and the benefit of hindsight makes
it easy to say that we made a good decision to use SGML for IRIS
InSight. SGML is certainly viable today for real applications,
and we hope that our case study provides some stepping stones on
a successful path to SGML. Nevertheless, we advise those reading
this paper to recognize that even for us, SGML was only a means
and not an end for online documentation. The ultimate goal was
always usable and cost-effective online documentation.
