sgml is the precursor to XML, with dsssl as the precursor of XSLT and DTD as the precursor to XML schema and relax-ng. The first "final" sgml standard document

sgml is the precursor to XML, with dsssl as the precursor of XSLT and DTD as the precursor to XML schema and relax-ng. The first "final" sgml standard document was published in 1986, the initial draft was available in 1980. http://www.sgmlsource.com/history/sgmlhist.htm http://www.sgmlsource.com/history/sgmlhist.htm The first html spec was thus accompanied with a DTD. CERN was heavily involved in the sgml standardization, thus it was natural for Tim Berners-Lee at cern to go the sgml route with html.