SoftQuad divests itself of Panorama product line

Following is a response to an email message I posted to the comp.text.sgml newsgroup, inquiring about SoftQuad Corporation's sale of its Panorama product line to Interleaf, Inc.

Go to Interleaf's website.

See also SoftQuad's statement concerning this matter.

See a copy of the historic document in which Yuri Rubinsky announced the availability of the Panorama SGML viewer.

From:	Betty Harvey <harvey@eccnet.com>	Dead link
Newsgroups:	comp.text.sgml
Subject:	Re: ???? What does SoftQuad's divestiture of Panorama, etc. mean ????
Date:	3 Oct 1998 10:06:09 -0700

In article <36161891.65E8@cloud9.net>, "Brad says...
>
>Yesterday I discovered that
>
>    http://www.softquad.com/panorama/viewer/
>
>, which used to lead to the page on the SoftQuad Corporation
>website where one could download evaluation copies of 
>the Panorama SGML viewer, has become:
>
>    File Not Found
>
>    The requested URL /panorama/viewer/ was not found on this server.
>
>Somewhere last nite, on the SoftQuad website, I seem to have 
>found notice that they had sold their Panorama operation (their 
>whole Toronto office) to some other company, although now, in the
>light of morning, I can no longer find that (I do find that viewing
>SoftQuad's new home page does something which makes my computer 
>slow to a crawl...).
>
>Questions (feel free to add your own):
>
>(1) Does anybody know anything about this development?
>

Interleaf bought the SGML side of SoftQuad.  This includes
Panorama and Author/Editor.  The announcement can be found
at: 
http://www.quicken.com/investments/news/story/?story=/news/stories/bw/19980925/a1196.htm&symbol=SWEBF

>(2) Is there a new way to get evaluation copies of
>Panorama viewer?

I think it is anyones guess at this point.  I would have
thought Interleaf would have made a statement by now
about its intention for both products.

>
>(3) What do people think this development portends for
>the future of SGML (or, to return to a topic from 
>Page 1 of the July 98 TAG newsletter: the possible 
>"death of SGML")?
>

I really don't think it will impact the future of SGML.
SoftQuad has been floundering as a SGML company since
Yuri's death.  When Yuri died the vision of SoftQuad 
seemed to die within the corporate executives.  I don't
think they understood what the recognition factor that
SoftQuad had in the industry was.  SoftQuad under the
tutelage of Yuri was leading the way full-steam to
SGML on the Web.  Panorama and SoftQuad, again IMHO
was the impetus for XML.  

The fact that they bought  a company, Alpha,  whose main 
focus is childrens games proved IMHO that the corporate 
executives weren't interested in the technology that SoftQuad has 
traditionally been the leader of.  Nothing against Alpha but
from a business perspective, I don't see where the two 
technologies have anything in common.  The game company 
will maintain the corporate name SoftQuad, they also 
kept the rights to HoTMetaL.

I guess we are all still in a 'wait and see' mode about what
Interleaf's intentions are - hopefully honorable |-).

Betty

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Read Yuri Rubinsky's obituary. Read SoftQuad press release announcing Panorama divestiture. Read Laurent Sabarthez' notes about XML (SGML's "replacement").   Return to SGML document introducing you to SGML. Return   to formatted HTML version of SGML document introducing you to SGML. Go/Return   to another intro to SGML: *Darwin Among the Machines* (Susanne Langer and SGML).

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