Charles Goldfarb

Charles F. Goldfarb
Charles Goldfarb in 2008
Born (1939-11-26) November 26, 1939
EducationHarvard Law School (JD)
Alma materColumbia College[1]
Occupations
  • Computer scientist
  • Lawyer
  • Independent consultant[1]
  • Speaker[1]
EmployerIBM (1967–unknown)
Known forDesigning GML and SGML
Title
  • Research team lead, IBM Cambridge (1969 – before 1975)
  • Product planner, IBM Almaden (1975 – c. late 1980s)
  • Editor, SGML ISO committee (c. 1980 – 1986)
  • Chair, SGML committee (1986–unknown)
  • Director, Innodata Isogen (2000–2005)
  • Advisor, ObjectBuilders (2006 – before 2017)
[1]
Awards
Websitehttp://www.sgmlsource.com/ (defunct)

Charles F. Goldfarb (born 26 November 1939) is known as the creator of Generalized Markup Language (GML) and Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML),[2] and as the grandfather of the technologies built on SGML—namely HTML and the World Wide Web.[3] He coined the term markup language, and co-invented its concept alongside William W. Tunnicliffe, whom he claims brought the idea to his attention.[3]

GML and SGML

In 1969 Goldfarb, leading a small team at IBM, developed Generalized Markup Language[3] (GML)—the first of its kind. Goldfarb coined the initialism GML after its three developers: himself, Edward Mosher, and Raymond Lorie.[2][3]

In 1974, Goldfarb designed the SGML syntax[2] and subsequently wrote the first SGML parser, ARC-SGML.[4][5] SGML facilitates the sharing of machine-readable documents for large projects. SGML was used by the Department of Defense in aerospace engineering and industrial publishing.[6][7][8] Goldfarb began working on drafting the SGML syntax into an industry standard from 1978. Acceptance of working drafts began in 1980, with work continuing until 1986, when it was formally accepted as the ISO 8879 standard.[9] Goldfarb served as the editor of the standardization committee.

Other endeavors

Goldfarb graduated with a JD from Harvard Law School before being hired at IBM.[10][1] He worked at IBM, with the majority of his tenure at the Almaden Research Center—spending at least a decade there.[11] His work, unofficial and later official, on SGML's specification was done during that time. He is an independent consultant and speaker based in Belmont, California.[1]

Bibliography

  • Rubinsky, Yuri, ed. (1990). The SGML Handbook. Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-853737-9.
  • —; Pepper, Steve; Ensign, Chet (1998). SGML Buyer's Guide: A Unique Guide to Determining Your Requirements and Choosing the Right SGML and XML Products and Services. University of Michigan: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-681511-1.
  • —; Prescod, Paul (1998). The XML Handbook (1st ed.). University of California: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-081152-1.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Dr. Charles F. Goldfarb". IT History Society. 21 December 2015. Retrieved 28 September 2025.
  2. ^ a b c Floyd, Michael (November 1998) [Text copyright 2003]. "A Conversation with Charles F. Goldfarb". Web Techniques. Archived from the original on 15 August 2009. Retrieved 27 September 2025.
  3. ^ a b c d Mayor, Dana (4 January 2021). "Charles Goldfarb". History-Computer. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  4. ^ Cover, Robin (11 April 2002). "Public SGML/XML Software § ARC-SGML: Charles Goldfarb's Almaden Research Center SGML Parser". The Cover Pages. Retrieved 27 September 2025.
  5. ^ "ARC-SGML Source Code: Index of /mirror/archive/ftp.sunet.se/pub/text-processing/sgml/ARC-SGML". ftp.sunet.se. Retrieved 13 October 2025.
  6. ^ "Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). ISO 8879:1986". Sustainability of Digital Formats (Library of Congress). 25 April 2023. Retrieved 28 September 2025.
  7. ^ Harold, Elliotte Rusty; Means, W. Scott (September 2004). XML in a Nutshell (3rd ed.). O'Reilly Media, Inc. ISBN 0596007647. Retrieved 28 September 2025.
  8. ^ Stachowiak, Raymond H. (23 September 1997). "SGML/XML Asia Pacific '97 § Using SGML to Facilitate Publishing to the Web". Retrieved 28 September 2025.
  9. ^ ISO 8879:1986 — Information processing — Text and office systems — Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) (1st ed.). ISO. October 1986. Retrieved 28 September 2025.
  10. ^ "Famous Harvard Law School Alumni". Ranker. 3 July 2024. Retrieved 28 September 2025.
  11. ^ Slocombe, David. "Charles Goldfarb, SGML Handbook. Table of Contents". The Cover Pages. Retrieved 28 September 2025.

Further reading

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