IPF Editor
Erick Andrews
There are a few on Hobbes. I tried installing Vyperhelp but it won't
install, probably because there's no WPI file and I'm using the latest
WarpIn.
Suggestions welcome.
--
Best,
Erick Andrews
delete bogus to reply
Andreas Schnellbacher
> What's the best editor for editing IPF files?
Yes, no sane will ever write in IPF. ;-)
> There are a few on Hobbes. I tried installing Vyperhelp but it won't
> install, probably because there's no WPI file and I'm using the
> latest WarpIn.
I also tried Vyperhelp and I don't like it: I want to edit text files
in an editor, not in a word processor. Moreover, it is (currently) not
able to produce reliable (and for me usable) outputs. Simply texts
work, but nothing more.
> Suggestions welcome.
I use Christian Langanke's Hypertext/2. I like it so much, that I've
added some more enhancements and an IPF to Hypertext/2 converter. It
will probably be released in the next days/weeks.
An alternative is Martin Vieregg's HyperMake, but it's shareware.
There exists also an Perl tool somewhere, but the output looks ugly
for me, regarding some formatting decisions.
--
Andreas Schnellbacher
Christian Hennecke
<eand...@bogusstar.net> wrote:
> What's the best editor for editing IPF files?
>
> There are a few on Hobbes. I tried installing Vyperhelp but it won't
> install, probably because there's no WPI file and I'm using the latest
> WarpIn.
>
> Suggestions welcome.
I haven't seen a decent one yet. The best you can do is to use a normal
text editor with IPF syntax highlighting. IIRC someone uploaded a
configuration file for FTE to Hobbes recently. I can also give you mine
for the F file manager.
An alternative is to write HTML and convert that to IPF. I've extended
Andrew Zabolotny's HTML2IPF REXX script over the last years for use at
VOICE. Tell me if you'd like to give it a try.
--
"I smell blood and an era of prominent madmen." - W.H. Auden
Andreas Schnellbacher
> On 03.11.06 22:07, Erick Andrews wrote:
>
>> What's the best editor for editing IPF files?
>
> I use Christian Langanke's Hypertext/2.
After having read Christian Hennecke's posting:
Sorry, I missed to mention HTML2IPF. That works really good, but you
have to create/use countless HTML files. IMO Hypertext/2 is a better
tool and also offers great writer support, e.g. via the .SUBLINK
command.
--
Andreas Schnellbacher
Christian Hennecke
<as...@despammed.com> wrote:
> >> What's the best editor for editing IPF files?
> >
> > I use Christian Langanke's Hypertext/2.
>
> After having read Christian Hennecke's posting:
>
> Sorry, I missed to mention HTML2IPF. That works really good, but you
> have to create/use countless HTML files. IMO Hypertext/2 is a better
> tool and also offers great writer support, e.g. via the .SUBLINK
> command.
I wouldn't say better. It depends on what you want and how you work.
HTML2IPF has certain limitations but you can use, e.g., NVU to edit
files. With Hypertext/2, you again have to learn another syntax.
Andreas Schnellbacher
Far the most people would confirm this. (I didn't saw that "learn
another syntax" issue before.)
BTW: I'm happy when I can write in "Literate Programming", as Don
Knuth preached for. Additionally, I want to write a text and not to
"click it together". Commands in the text don't confuse me, when I use
an editor with keyword highlighting. Without that, that would not be
an option for me.
Maybe the question what tool to use is a question of how good is the
author trained in using an HTML editor. In contrast to HTML (and
LaTeX), Hypertext/2 provides easy-to-type syntax commands and tries to
minimize them. To be fair: I must state, that there _was_ a hurdle
before I created my first own document. Moreover I'm quite biased,
since I almost think in Hypertext/2 and I usually write no HTML
texts.;-)
--
Andreas Schnellbacher
Alex Taylor
> What's the best editor for editing IPF files?
I just use a text editor. IPF syntax is extremely easy, unless you want
to do particularly complex things.
At the simplest, just type plain text, then put ":p." in front of every
paragraph and replace literal colons with "&colon." and literal ampersands
with "&.". Put ":userdoc." at the start of the file, ":euserdoc." at
the end, and use ":h1 x=left y=bottom width=100% y=100%." to prefix chapter
titles. (Too many automated tools neglect to put this latter stuff in
properly, which led to resize problems with the old VIEW.EXE.)
--
Alex Taylor
http://www.cs-club.org/~alex
Remove hat to reply (reply-to address).
ML
> At the simplest, just type plain text, then put ":p." in front of
> every paragraph and replace literal colons with "&colon." and
> literal ampersands with "&.". Put ":userdoc." at the start of
> the file, ":euserdoc." at the end, and use ":h1 x=left y=bottom
> width=100% y=100%." to prefix chapter titles. (Too many automated
> tools neglect to put this latter stuff in properly, which led to
> resize problems with the old VIEW.EXE.)
One even could write a rather simple Rexx script to convert your own
very basic text format to IPF, as long as you maintain the same text
structure (like making it possible to always insert a new chapter at
each blank line, replace EOL's with :p., and so on).
---
Erick Andrews
Thanks for everyone's help. I think that for now I'll just use a text editor,
because it seems that the other solutions could be overkill for the size
of the help file I have so far.