ISO-8879ISO-8879 is the International Standard Organization's (ISO) specification for Standard Generalized Mark-up Languages (SGML). The Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML), which is used for WWW publishing, is one example of an SGML.
The ISO created standard number 8879 as a means of ensuring that all WWW browsers would interpret text in the same way. This is not to say that ISO 8879 guarantees that a page will look exactly the same on each browser; instead, ISO 8879 provides the guidelines and rules necessary to ensure that the words written in a document loaded to a server will be read the same by each browser. Along with ISO 8879, the ISO also produced a definition of HTML syntax, which is called a Document Type Definition, or DTD. The DTD can be used along with any combination of SGMLs to validate the syntax of an HTML document.
Using HTML in a way that conforms to ISO 8879 can save a WWW page author a lot of anxiety. The standard was created to ensure document owners that their message would be the same whether read by Mosaic or Lynx, in England or in Canada. It also ensures the continued use of an easy to learn language for Web publishing.
The Netscape browser, which was partially developed by Marc Andressen, the primary developer of the original NCSA Mosaic, has quickly become the brightest star in browser cyberspace. However, some of the features its strongest supporters applaud have incurred the wrath of those wanting to keep HTML uniform. Unlike other browsers, Netscape supports many non- standard HTML tags. Netscape's fans appreciate the diversity of pages viewed with this browser, but critics point out that these tags are not recognized by other browsers, and because of this, the universality of WWW documents could be lost.