NIST has announced that it is withdrawing FIPS 152, the U.S. government Federal Information Processing Standard for using SGML. Vendors and users of SGML should be aware that this is not a cause for concern.
NIST is actually withdrawing ALL FIPS except for those relating to security, which they are required by law to keep. In fact, NIST is withdrawing from the standards business entirely. Instead of Federal standards, the U.S. government is switching to the use of International and U.S. standards.
Bottom line: The withdrawal of FIPS 152 does not in any way indicate a lessening of U.S. government support for SGML. ISO 8879 will now be used directly, rather than being profiled by a FIPS.
(Thanks to Steve DeRose for alerting us to this situation, and to Dr. James Mason of the U.S. Dept. of Energy and Jerry Smith of the Defense Information Standards Agency for providing insights into the government's motivation.)
Contact Robin Cover with corrections and updates, or to submit contributions to the ISUG online document database.
