SGML's advocates expect, or wish to enforce, a universal linear representation of hierarchial structure. I will turn to general problems of the embedded method. I have three extremely different objections to embedded markup. Editing The SGML approach is a delivery format, not a working format. If material is to be edited, it generally must be frequently counted to perform the edit operations.
Tags throw off the counts.
This means that while text is being reworked, some other representation must be maintained, or complex tricks invoked to maintain counts. This seems quite wrong. This topic will take some explaining. Network electronic publishing offers a unique special-case solution to the copyright problem that has not been generally recognized. I call it transpublishing .