Charles F. Goldfarb, (born November 26, 1939) is known as the father of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML)[1] and grandfather of HTML[2] and the World Wide Web, also referred to as WWW, W3, or the Web.[3] He co-invented the concept of markup languages.[4]

Charles F. Goldfarb
Charles F. Goldfarb, co-inventor of GML (Grammatical Markup Language)
Charles Goldfarb
Born (1939-11-26) November 26, 1939 (age 84)
EducationHarvard Law School
Known forDeveloping Generalized Markup Language

In 1969 Charles Goldfarb, leading a small team at IBM,[5] developed the first markup language, called Generalized Markup Language,[6] or GML. Goldfarb coined the term GML,[7] an initialism for the three researchers, Charles Goldfarb, Ed Mosher and Ray Lorie, who worked on the project.[8]

In 1974, Goldfarb designed SGML[9] and subsequently wrote the first SGML parser, ARC-SGML.[10] SGML facilitates the sharing of machine readable documents for large projects. SGML was used by the military and aerospace,[11] and industrial publishing.[12] Goldfarb continued working to turn SGML into the ISO 8879 standard,[13] and served as its editor in the standardization committee.

Goldfarb held a J.D. from Harvard Law School.[14] After working at IBM's Almaden Research Center,[15] he was an independent consultant based in Belmont, California.[16]

Selected publications edit

  • The SGML Handbook, Oxford University Press (1991), ISBN 0-19-853737-9
  • SGML Buyer's Guide, Prentice Hall (1998), ISBN 0-13-681511-1
  • XML Handbook, Prentice Hall (1998), ISBN 0-13-081152-1

References edit

  1. ^ "Web Techniques: A Conversation with Charles F. Goldfarb". people.apache.org. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  2. ^ Mayor, Dana (2021-01-04). "Charles Goldfarb". History-Computer. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  3. ^ "World Wide Web - MDN Web Docs Glossary: Definitions of Web-related terms | MDN". developer.mozilla.org. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  4. ^ Mayor, Dana (2021-01-04). "Charles Goldfarb". History-Computer. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  5. ^ Mayor, Dana (2021-01-04). "Charles Goldfarb". History-Computer. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  6. ^ Mayor, Dana (2021-01-04). "Charles Goldfarb". History-Computer. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  7. ^ Mayor, Dana (2021-01-04). "Charles Goldfarb". History-Computer. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  8. ^ "Web Techniques: A Conversation with Charles F. Goldfarb". Archived from the original on 2009-08-15. Retrieved 2009-06-15.
  9. ^ "Web Techniques: A Conversation with Charles F. Goldfarb". people.apache.org. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  10. ^ Cover, Robin. "Public SGML/XML Software". xml.coverpages.org. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  11. ^ "6.1. SGML's Legacy - XML in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition [Book]". www.oreilly.com. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  12. ^ "SGML/XML Asia Pacific '97 - Title". xml.coverpages.org. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  13. ^ "Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). ISO 8879:1986". www.loc.gov. 2018-02-21. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  14. ^ "Famous Harvard Law School Alumni". Ranker. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  15. ^ "Goldfarb, Handbook TOC". xml.coverpages.org. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  16. ^ "Dr. Charles F. Goldfarb". IT History Society. 2015-12-21. Retrieved 2023-04-26.

External links edit