pete@wlbr.EATON.COM (Pete Lyall) (06/24/88)
Mike (and all UG Members) -
Here is the UG LIBRARIAN's response to changing the format of the
UG LIBRARY's "help" files:
Pete
=====================================================================
Date: 22-Jun-88 21:09 PDT
From: Carl Kreider [71076,76]
Subj: reply
Pete, What follows is a reply to Mike King of ATT. The message from
you is on the system at work, and I am off for a week or I would carve
out his address. If I can do this without typos, his trailer looks
like this:
UUCP:..!ihnp4!cblpf!mdk1
Domain: mdk1@cblpf.ATT.COM
His message re: help files came via comp.sys.m6809
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Mike, I agree with your choice of UG help file format :-). The history
of what currently exists is roughly this: Few contributors send help
files with their disk. In fact, it is hard enough to get them to send
a signed release! So Dave Kalieta, who was librarian at the time, carved
some information out of the database and called it a help file. This, he
figured, would at least provide the instructions for use. I have spoken
with him about this, and he dropped the ball on me. I don't have any
more time than he does, so the most I have been able to do is to carve
the files down a bit and remove some of the real extraneous stuff. But
now that you have volunteered <grin> all this should be a thing of the
past. Size is a potential problem, but, as you mentioned, brevity will
help. They will surely have to be distributed in formatted condition
since there is no default formatter for OS9. I, in fact, have neither
Dynastar or TSWORD. I use my own invention, patterned after the Unix
man pages for *roff. Disk space will be less of a problem as time goes
on. More and more users have dsdd 40's and even 80's. I haven't had
that much _demand_ for sssd diskettes, and several of the library disks
can only be obtained in larger formats. By far the largest problem is
familiarity with the utility the help file is intended to augment. That
turned out to be my biggest problem. It requires reading source code to
figure out all the options and their effects. It may require running
the utility to clarify your understanding. I am fluent in C and asm,
but really get bogged down in Basic. It is a very time consuming
project. So, whaddaya think? If you are still interested (really, I
am _not_ trying to scare you off) send a USnail address and I will start
shipping disks to you.
Carl Kreider
OS-9 User Group Librarian
--
Pete Lyall (OS9 Users Group VP)| DELPHI: OS9UGVP | Eaton Corp.(818)-706-5693
Compuserve: 76703,4230 (OS9 Sysop) OS9 (home): (805)-985-0632 (24hr./1200 baud)
Internet: pete@wlbr.eaton.com UUCP: {ihnp4,scgvax,jplgodo,voder}!wlbr!pete