Yuri Ivan Rubinsky (August 2, 1952 – January 21, 1996) was a Lebanese-born writer, software executive, and promoter of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), which was the basis for the now-ubiquitous XML.
In 1984, along with partners David Slocombe, Stan Bevington, and Patrick Dempster, Yuri founded a small Toronto-based technology company called SoftQuad,[3] of which he was President.
SoftQuad was started in order to improve automated typesetting at Toronto's Coach House Press, and for many years developed a version of troff.
SoftQuad developed and sold a variety of SGML tools, such as Author/Editor, and notably one of the first commercial HTML authoring products, HoTMetaL.
Using SGML source files, Yuri's novel Christopher Columbus Answers All Charges (see below) was coded into Braille and produced on voice synthesizer before it was printed on paper.
His books include A History of The End of The World (1982), The Wankers' Guide to Canada (1986) and (as co-author, with Marc Giacomelli) the novel Christopher Columbus Answers All Charges (1993).