The DCL Guide to Public Domain DTDs

March 10th, 2010 Posted in Electronic Publishing, Featured, Healthcare, XML/SGML

A few years ago, if you needed structured documentation, your only option was to create the structure yourself—or else pay a consultant to develop one for you. While making your own DTD may produce a structure customized to your needs, it also requires a lot of knowledge, time, and effort (among other costs). And since every organization marched to its own DTD drummer, there was no hope for exchanging tools or data.

Fortunately, DTDs have come a long way in a short time. Today, the multitude of public DTDs available for free have provided a convenient alternative to proprietary or custom DTDs. While some are appropriate only for very specific types of documentation, the most common public domain DTDs tend to be more generally applicable. How can you tell which one will best suit your needs? DCL aims to clear up the confusion with this breakdown of the differences between common public domain DTDs.

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