Nathan Kopp wrote:

> What would be the desired format for MegaPov documentation for Windows and
> Unix?
>
> Available formats to choose from:
>
> WordPerfect

Probably not supported enough.


> MS Word 97

Eww. Help. Please no.

> MS Word (simple, read by WordPad)

Also not too good.


> PostScript

Nice for printing, but probably not for a on-computer reference.


> PDF (only if I can generate it with free tools)

A bit better than PS, but maybe so-so. Much preferred over any MS Word format
though.


> HTML (export from MS Word)

No no no nonononononononononononooooooooooooooooooooo. Please no. Its output
is so horrible and broken that it's only due to the sloppy implementation of
HTML in MSIE that Word's output just accendentally happens to work. Please
something else.


> Some other format that I could easily generate from a MS Word file using
> free tools.

I'd suggest exporting to RTF (as most word processors on most platforms
handle that and in a fairly good manner). Then you might have it run through
some tools to make nice HTML.

If you had anyway to get to XML, that would be great. From good XML it's
quite easy to get it converted to just about anything needed, and to build
needed indexies, etc.


> (Sorry, but I don't have any tools to generate HLP files for Windows.)
>
> -Nathan

Hmmm. If you sign up for the free MSDN membership, you might get free access
to their help compiler. It's worth looking into.


And, yes, I'd be more than willing to give some time, if it would mean saving
you from having to put out MS Word's HTML.  :-)

--
"My new computer's got the clocks, it rocks
But it was obsolete before I opened the box" - W.A.Y.

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>(Sorry, but I don't have any tools to generate HLP files for Windows.)


Almost forgot.

Check out: http://www.kos.org/software/hlpy.htm
And, for a more updated version:
http://www.xteq.com/products/hlpy/index.html

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Nathan Kopp wrote in message <388b6675@news.povray.org>...
>
>What would be the desired format for MegaPov documentation for Windows and
>Unix?
>
>Available formats to choose from:
>


Text or html would be prefered here.

Gail
*******************************************************************
* gsh### [at] monotixcoza              * ERROR: COFFEE.COM not found  *
* http://www.rucus.ru.ac.za/~gail/ * Insert cup and press any key *
*******************************************************************
* Definition of an upgrade: Take the old bugs out, put new ones in*
*******************************************************************

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Nathan Kopp <Nat### [at] koppcom> wrote:
: WordPerfect
: MS Word 97
: MS Word (simple, read by WordPad)

  In unix?
  Well, I could read them using StarOffice, but it would be a pain to start
it every time I want to read a quick help.

: PostScript

  Nope. Too hard to navigate.

: PDF (only if I can generate it with free tools)

  Only if PFD supports links to other parts of the document.

: HTML (export from MS Word)

  Perhaps the best choice (if it has proper links). But I think that the
Word's HTML export is not the best possible.

  Some people suggest the RTF format.
  How do I open such a file in unix? Does it support links?

-- 
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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I suggest you don't use platform dependant formats, such as Word.
Postscript is good for printing, but the files are rather large to d/l. 
My favorite would be html. 

sig.

Nathan Kopp 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.
> 
> (Sorry, but I don't have any tools to generate HLP files for Windows.)
> 
> -Nathan

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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?


HTML would be good for me, except one person said that MS-Word's HTML
conversion tool doesn't work very well. I've seen similiar conversion
tools from other companies, and they didn't work very well either.

Is it too hard to write the docs in HTML to start with? This would
certainly solve cross-platform issues. I think there are even HTML
browsers for DOS users. HTML is probably the most portable option of
all.

I think it might also be nice to allow end-user modification of the
help file.  If the help file is in a modular HTML format, it would be
possible for the end-user to add some new pages, correct a typo on an
existing page, or make whatever personal notes they wanted. It would
become more of a personalized "workbook" in a sense. I can't do these
things to a PDF, PostScript, or Windows Help document. 

As for the Word Processing formats you listed, I personally can read
and edit any of those, but I don't think they are very portable across
different platforms.

As for Windows users of MegaPov, it might be nice to simply launch a
Windows Help file, but I can easily live without this if it will be
too much work to create.

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On Sun, 23 Jan 2000 15:35:55 -0500, Nathan Kopp wrote:
>
>What would be the desired format for MegaPov documentation for Windows and
>Unix?
>Some other format that I could easily generate from a MS Word file using
>free tools.

DocBook!  DocBook!  (no free tools available yet, though, so you'll
have to write your own. :) )

-- 
These are my opinions.  I do NOT speak for the POV-Team.
The superpatch: http://www2.fwi.com/~parkerr/superpatch/
My other stuff: http://www2.fwi.com/~parkerr/traces.html

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TonyB wrote:
> 
> >What would be the desired format for MegaPov documentation for Windows and
> >Unix?
> 
> I'm pretty attached to HTML, preferably with CSS, layers, frames, and the
> whole shabang... My second choice would be PDF.

Just to comment on that, layers aren't supported by many browsers, e.g.
mozilla does not support this netscape HTML-enhancement.

Just a note

Axel

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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?

  HTML or .pdf.

  I like .pdf for the official POV-Ray because it preserves example
images, section numbers, and one can 'pagedown' through the document.
Having one large document makes it easy to perform a search for
keywords.

-- 
Alan - ako### [at] povrayorg - a k o n g <at> p o v r a y <dot> o r g
http://www.povray.org - Home of the Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer

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Ron Parker wrote:
> 
> On Sun, 23 Jan 2000 15:35:55 -0500, Nathan Kopp wrote:
> >
> >What would be the desired format for MegaPov documentation for Windows and
> >Unix?
> >Some other format that I could easily generate from a MS Word file using
> >free tools.
> 
> DocBook!  DocBook!  (no free tools available yet, though, so you'll
> have to write your own. :) )
> 

Just wanted to support that one. Oh, when you want to write your tools,
look for:

http://www.sgmltools.org/  This is unix piece of software, and a bit
dead (and outdated). Get current docbook at http://www.docbook.org/ ,
they have all important links. They have stylesheets as well, so IE and
mozilla should be able to read .sgml directly. Be sure to look at
http://www.nwalsh.com/ , he's on of the XML gurus, member of W3
commities, IIRC. And http://www.jclark.com/ , he's author of expat, one
of the most commonly used XML parsers (expat), and jade, transforming
engnine. As I surf, jade is available on WIN32, so here your free tools
go. (sgmltools is just a package with nice scripts to call jade).

What a Ken'ish reply that is.

Axel

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