README.1ST: SGML for Writers and Editors is a first in more ways than just its title.

• It is the first book on SGML that was truly written for non-technical end users. That is undoubtedly because its authors--Ron Turner, Tim Douglass, and Audrey Turner, of Soph-Ware Associates--were professional writers and educators before they became SGML experts.

• It is the first SGML textbook, in the sense that it was developed in a university setting. It was proven in classroom use at Eastern Washington University, home of the "Electronic Information Institute" World Wide Web site.

• It is a beginner's book--easy and fun to read--but without the mistakes common to such books. That is, it doesn't try to achieve simplicity by blurring vital distinctions or omitting key concepts. Instead, it simplifies advanced SGML applications like hypertext and the World Wide Web by explaining, step-by-step, how they evolve naturally from basic SGML facilities.

In achieving all this, the book is scrupulously faithful to the SGML International Standard. It uses the standardized professional vocabulary of SGML to teach the language's constructs. But it introduces and motivates the use of that vocabulary by relating it to the real work of writers and editors. The title says README.1ST. I wish I could have. You'll be glad you can.

Charles F. Goldfarb
Saratoga, CA
June, 1995