Charles Goldfarb

Charles F. Goldfarb is known as the father of SGML and is a co-inventor of the concept of markup languages. In 1969 Charles Goldfarb, leading a small team at IBM, developed the first markup language, called Generalized Markup Language, or GML. In an interview with Web Techniques Magazine editor Michael Floyd, Dr. Goldfarb explains that he coined the term GML to be an initialism for the three researchers, Charles Goldfarb, Ed Mosher and Ray Lorie who worked on the project.

In 1974, he designed SGML and subsequently wrote the first SGML parser, ARCSGML. Goldfarb would also work to turn SGML into the ISO 8879 standard, and serve as its editor.

Goldfarb holds an LL.B. from Harvard Law School. He worked at IBM's Almaden Research Center for many years and is now an independent consultant based in Saratoga, California.

Selected publications

• The SGML Handbook, Oxford University Press (1991), ISBN 0-19-853737-9
• SGML Buyer's Guide, Prentice Hall (1998), ISBN 0-13-681511-1
• XML Handbook, Prentice Hall (1998), ISBN 0-13-081152-1

External links

• Charles F. Goldfarb's SGML Homepage
• A Conversation with Charles F. Goldfarb
• XML Opportunities Knocking (Interview Part 2)