Charles F. Goldfarb is the father of markup languages, a term that he coined in 1970. He invented the original SGML language in 1974 and later led the team that developed it into the International Standard on which both HTML and XML are based. He has served as Editor of the Standard (ISO 8879) for 20 years, and is a consultant to developers of SGML and XML applications and products.
While at IBM Dr. Goldfarb led the project that in 1969 invented SGML's precursor, GML, the first structured markup language. (Most of the tags from the first GML application are still alive and well in HTML today.) He also designed and coded the first and -- with its derivatives, notably SGMLS -- the most influential SGML parser, "ARCSGML". He also helped develop IBM's multi-site multi-national GML (now SGML) publishing system, producing 11 million master pages, and served as a market planner for information systems products.
He edits Prentice-Hall's Definitive XML Series from Charles F. Goldfarb and co-authored The XML Handbook™ and the SGML Buyer's Guide™. He has been profiled in Forbes, Web Techniques, and other publications, and the Seybold Report cited his SGML Handbook™ as the definitive reference on SGML. The XML Handbook™ is sixth on Amazon.com's 1998 Top Ten List of Internet books, the only XML title to make the list. It is published in six languages.
Dr. Goldfarb is an Honorary Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication. He also holds the first GCA International SGML Award and the Printing Industries of America Gutenberg Award. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Columbia College. You can find him on the Web at the SGML Source Home Page.
To Charles F. Goldfarb's SGML Source Home Page.
Copyright ©1999 Charles F. Goldfarb. All rights reserved. Information on this site cannot be used or cited for any commercial purpose, although links to the site are welcome. Any questions, comments, or suggestions? Send me mail.