Crane Softwrights Ltd. is a consultancy delivering Computer Systems Analysis and training services worldwide since April 1997. We focus primarily in structured text processing related to the Web-based Extensible Markup Language (W3C XML) family of Recommendations and the international Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML - ISO 8879:1986) family of Standards. We specialize in the structuring of and processing of information, in particular training and deploying the use of both the Extensible Stylesheet Language (W3C XSL/XSLT/XPath) set of Recommendations and Universal Business Language (UBL) artefacts and systems.

1. Announcements

Upcoming publicly-attended training courses:

Wellington, NZ Please indicate your interest!

• These are the most in-depth configurations of Crane's XSL training classes, covering the use of every element, every attribute and every function of both XSLT/XPath 1.0 and 2.0, and every formatting object of XSL-FO 1.0 and 1.1 with more detail and more exercises than other available configurations of our material.
• syllabus: XSLT/XPath 1.0 & 2.0 Hands-on Training - 5 days - January 26-30, 2009
• syllabus: XSL-FO 1.0 & 1.1 Hands-on Training - 3 days - February 2-4, 2009
• instructor: G. Ken Holman
• expression of interest form and anticipated fees (please indicate your interest in attending without obligation; we will be basing our decision on initial indications of interest before making expensive commitments regarding the venue)
• New deadline: We need to know by July 25 if there is sufficient interest or we will have to abandon our hotel reservation ... please let us know ASAP ... thanks!

If you are interested in having us travel to your area of the world to teach publicly-subscribed courses for organizations in your geographical area, we would be pleased to discuss the opportunity with you. We have detailed our requirements and if a delivery is feasible we will post an announcement for a candidate course to establish the amount of local interest. We have had the privilege to have taught in many cities around the world.

International business: Crane Softwrights Ltd. is pleased to announce that Document Engineering Services has become a partner for Crane's services outside of North America. With its international presence this dynamic new organization, created to service and satisfy a broad spectrum of electronic document exchange requirements, provides a natural synergy with Crane.

U.S. Government employees: - free access to your prepaid XSL book licenses

2. Services we provide

• Stylesheet writing
  • you need it; we write it!
• Stylesheet mentoring
  • you write it; we review and comment on it!
• Training delivery
  • we teach it; you learn it!
• Training licensing
  • we write it; you teach it!
• Book sales
  • we write it; you learn it!
• XML consulting
  • you need help; we are here to help you!

3. Recommended reading

Who would have thought the interlinked web of information we use today, and the problems and shortcomings of how we are obliged to use it today by those who publish the information we need, was prophetically described in July 1945 by Vannevar Bush in the article titled As We May Think? This is a very interesting article, not only for its prophecy, but for its recommendations. To paraphrase the editor's assessment of Dr. Bush's conclusion of the article: "The perfection of instruments that give access to and command over the inherited knowledge of the ages should be the first objective of our scientists."

For the lighter side of SGML and XML, Joe English's NOT the comp.text.sgml FAQ is a fun read, and I think that Sean McGrath is absolutely brilliant with his DeXiderata and Lord of the Schemas: Part 1 as the funniest collections of observations regarding the XML community and technology.

The following are articles/papers that have been published by Crane:

• Global large-scale stylesheet deployment case study
• Simple Worldwide Aggregation Using XSLT
• XSL-FO in the Real World
• What is XSL-FO? - 2002-03-20 XML.com
• Experiments using XSLT with Topic Maps - 2000-12 XML'2000
• What is XSLT? - 2000-08-16 XML.com
• Vive la différence! (proposed for XML.com)
• What's the Big Deal With XSL? - 1999-04-22 XML.com

Ken has also contributed (though only in a small part so far) to the collection of SGML/XML songs.

Here is some important Awareness of Male Cancers information.