On Sun, 23 Jan 2000 15:35:55 -0500, Nathan Kopp <Nat### [at] Koppcom> wrote:
>
>What would be the desired format for MegaPov documentation for Windows and
>Unix?
>
>Available formats to choose from:
>
>WordPerfect
>MS Word 97
>MS Word (simple, read by WordPad)
>PostScript
>PDF (only if I can generate it with free tools)
>HTML (export from MS Word)
>Some other format that I could easily generate from a MS Word file using
>free tools.

ASCII rocks.

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>
>I develop on a Windows computer.  Are there free tools available for me to
>use easily DocBook?  Also, the Smellenbergh brothers work primarily on the
>Mac, so free Mac tools are necessary as well.
>
>If that is possible, could you please point me a the general direction to
>get started.  I've been to a few websites about DocBook, SGML, and XML, and
>they all provided far too much information to be useful for me (I don't have
>three years to learn a new tool for creating the MegaPov 0.4 documentation.)
>;-)  You can email me with your reply or just post it here.  I'll get it
>either way.
>
>Otherwise, we'll probably end up using HTML as the primary format and
>converting from that to other formats.

Whatever you end up with producing it'd also be really good if you could
include a zipped up plain text version, it's so versatile and doesn't
require heavy duty software like web browsers.  

Call me regresive if you like but I'm moving away from GUI stuff at a 
high speed,  plain text doesn't get broken or misinterpreted the way
other formats do. 

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>
>    	I use Windows, Amiga, Lynix and Mac.  HTML would be my choice above 
>all others!  <smile>  I really don't see how HTML is a bad choice for 
>printing.  All it takes is a bit of pre-planning; put each page in a fixed 
>width table, so the format when printed will look exactly like the format 
>on screen, and make sure each page will fit on a printed page.  Use this 
>template for every page, and all you have to worry about is what to write, 
>not how to format it.
>    	Hyperlinks are, by far, more important to me than pretty printouts 
>anyway.  If you want to get fancy, some simple scripts can be created to do 
>searches on the HTML pages that will work on any modern browser.  But a 
>well thought out contents page is fine.


Nothing worse than a helpdesk call caused by someone trying 
to print a 60 page document that's using American page sizes.

Please don't inflict this on us.

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On Sun, 23 Jan 2000 15:35:55 -0500, "Nathan Kopp" <Nat### [at] Koppcom>
wrote:

>
>What would be the desired format for MegaPov documentation for Windows and
>Unix?

How about a manpage? <grin>


Peter Popov
pet### [at] usanet
ICQ: 15002700

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Peter Popov <pet### [at] usanet> wrote:
: How about a manpage? <grin>

  Not a bad suggestion, after all.

-- 
main(i,_){for(_?--i,main(i+2,"FhhQHFIJD|FQTITFN]zRFHhhTBFHhhTBFysdB"[i]
):5;i&&_>1;printf("%s",_-70?_&1?"[]":" ":(_=0,"\n")),_/=2);} /*- Warp -*/

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Nieminen Juha wrote:
> 
> Peter Popov <pet### [at] usanet> wrote:
> : How about a manpage? <grin>
> 
>   Not a bad suggestion, after all.

I've never heard of it so it can't be good. I would prefer girlpages anyway :)

-- 
Ken Tyler -  1300+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

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Ken <tyl### [at] pacbellnet> wrote:
: I've never heard of it so it can't be good.

  That's because you have never used UNIX :)

: I would prefer girlpages anyway :)

$ girl povray
girl: not found

  Sorry, no deal ;)

-- 
main(i,_){for(_?--i,main(i+2,"FhhQHFIJD|FQTITFN]zRFHhhTBFHhhTBFysdB"[i]
):5;i&&_>1;printf("%s",_-70?_&1?"[]":" ":(_=0,"\n")),_/=2);} /*- Warp -*/

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On Mon, 31 Jan 2000 01:04:03 +0200, Peter Popov <pet### [at] usanet> wrote:
>On Sun, 23 Jan 2000 15:35:55 -0500, "Nathan Kopp" <Nat### [at] Koppcom>
>wrote:
>
>>
>>What would be the desired format for MegaPov documentation for Windows and
>>Unix?
>
>How about a manpage? <grin>

Great idea, and not difficult to setup/convert.

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Steve              email mailto:sjl### [at] ndirectcouk

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man page=Manual page
I only recently came across the term myself.  And I vote for girl page too.

Bob

"Ken" <tyl### [at] pacbellnet> wrote in message
news:38956B1E.5599B808@pacbell.net...

| I've never heard of it so it can't be good. I would prefer girlpages anyway :)

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On Mon, 31 Jan 2000 02:59:42 -0800, Ken <tyl### [at] pacbellnet> wrote:

>
>
>Nieminen Juha wrote:
>> 
>> Peter Popov <pet### [at] usanet> wrote:
>> : How about a manpage? <grin>
>> 
>>   Not a bad suggestion, after all.
>
>I've never heard of it so it can't be good. I would prefer girlpages anyway :)

No deal. That would ban young users from reading the docs.
Then again, they never read any docs. Heck, if it doesn't work like
you want it to, patch it (right, Chris? :) )

Back on topic, I think a man page is a good idea. I have the Perl 5
html docs which have been converted from pod and I must tell you it
works like a charm. Hyperlinked, formatted et al. After all, the pod
format has been specifically design for documentaion.


Peter Popov
pet### [at] usanet
ICQ: 15002700

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