SGML contains information in a human-readable but not very pretty format. A "stylesheet" is used to present the information stored in SGML in a more pleasing or accessible way. DSSSL can convert to a wide range of formats including RTF, HTML and LaTeX.
Although compatible with any SGML, DSSSL is most often used with DocBook.
In parallel with the move from SGML to XML, people are using XSL instead. However, many of the concepts used in XSL originated with DSSSL.
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