Document Scripting with Open Standards: Transport of Application Behavior for Interactive Technical Documents

Different from the highly evolved and refined traditions of paper publishing, the models for both storing and presenting computer-based interactive documents is rapidly changing (and will continue to change). It is imperative that standards for application-neutral, interchangeable, and self-describing information content be applied if we are to maintain the value of electronic technical documents throughout the lifetime of the systems that they describe. In addition, for these types of documents it is important that the application behavior–the control logic that governs how an interactive document acts–is recorded. This paper addresses the interaction between electronic documents and the presentation software that renders them, focusing on the scripting of interactive behavior. The concepts are illustrated using an application of the SGML standard called the Metafile for Interactive Documents (MID), developed for the U.S. Navy to improve interoperability of Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals (IETMs).