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INFO.NEW
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1993-03-24
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%t Guide! Information
%n 2R0
%s Short blurb about this THHGTTKG reader program
%a Steve Baker (swbaker@vela.acs.oakland.edu)
%d 19930324
%x Article Writing Guide For Field Researchers And Guide Editors
%x Guide! Documentation File
%f 10
%i New Features in this version of The Guide!
%e
This is one of the first enhanced releases of The Guide!, an article
display, query, print, etc. system for Project Galactic-Guide (bringing to
life "The HitchHiker's Guide to the Known Galaxy").
The current version number is 1.20, compiled 03/24/93.
The Guide! is distributed as [ TGxxx.ZIP ] where the xxx represents the
current version number. In this case, the filename is: TG120.ZIP
This .ZIP file contains these files:
GUIDE.EXE -- the main program
GUIDE.DOC -- short intro/documentation file
UPDATE.EXE -- GuideNET update/report/delete utilities
READ.ME -- quickie start-up dox for the impatient
*.NEW -- sample entries and articles
*****************************************************************************
R E V I S I O N H I S T O R Y
Version 1.20, 03/24/93
* Enhancements to both GUIDE.EXE and UPDATE.EXE:
- Began support for an .INI file (similar to ones used by Windows
and other apps). This one's called GUIDE.INI, and in it you
can specify all sorts of cool toggles. Here's the variables
you can mess with (most are booleans, either "TRUE" or "FALSE"):
PageCompress ; if print should be compressed or not
PageGraphics ; if print should use extended ASCII
PageLaser ; if output to laser, not dot matrix
PageNumbers ; if want page numbers or not
AutoZoom ; if want every window zoomed when opened
ShowBanner ; if display opening "Don't Panic" banner
ShowReality ; if show reality level in article header
StartWithTOC ; if use Table of Contents instead of Index
VideoMode ; either "Color," "43/50," or "Mono"
PrinterPort ; either "LPT1," "LPT2," or "LPT3"
Note that some of these are new, never-before-featured options
like the AutoZoom and the ShowReality. Cool stuff.
If you use the parameters (like /NOBANNER or /TOC or /50) then
the .INI file will be updated upon exit, so you won't have to
use them any longer (the parameters will update the .INI).
GUIDE.INI is a regular ASCII file, so you can edit it with
just about anything (as long as you save it as an ASCII file).
This file gets rewritten every time you exit either program,
with the updated variables. Later on, I'll fix this thing to
not *rewrite* the file, but instead *update* the file with the
changes (a subtle but important difference).
- When displaying and printing an article, the system will no
longer waste space with blank fields. For example, if an
article does not have a summary, the (blank) summary field is
omitted from the article display. This also applies to the
Date and the Author fields. (Approved PGG articles will
always have all the fields, but for specialized uses like
Ron Larsen's SSIL System, this should come in very handy!)
* UPDATE.EXE Enhancements:
- I finally nailed that non-cross-cross-reference glitch, and
now all is good with the world. (Well, almost, anyway.)
If article B has a cross-reference to article A, then
automagically article A will have a link back to article B.
Wow. Too bad it wasn't working before, but at least now it
seems to be OK. Lemme know if you find problems <sigh>.
You'll need to scrap your existing GuideNET's and start over
for this wonderful feature to work (thus, delete the following
wildcards: *.DAT, *.HDR, *.XRF, and *.IDX in your Guide dir).
- The IAE now actually saves the article if you click the correct
buttons. Only the header information definable in the dialog
box is currently saved, since the actual editor is not yet
wired in. However, you can load this complete article "shell"
into an ASCII text editor, and just supply the contents of the
article itself in the middle, and you're all set!
Note that the dialog box is now intelligent enough to detect
that if its suggested filename already exists, it "auto-
increments" the filename (with numbers at the end) until it
finds one it can use. For example, if the file 'LAUGHING.ART'
already exists, it will first try 'LAUGHIN0.ART' and then
'LAUGHIN1.ART', etc.
* GUIDE.EXE Enhancements:
- Added nifty "context-sensitive" Status Line buttons for when you
hold down the Alt key, or the Shift key, or the Ctrl key (when
you're not in a dialog box, etc). The bottom status line gets
updated with whatever hot-key set is applicable, based on which
key (ie, Shift, Ctrl, or Alt) you're currently pressing.
Pretty cool; give it a try!
- Added extra blank lines to the Shell to DOS message, per request.
(This was actually done a few releases ago, but I had never
remembered to mention it before... let's see, what *else* have
I been playing with lately?! Humm...)
- More little things, tinkerings, and other junk.
(There, that should cover just about everything!)
* The NEXT release should be a *big* one, with the following stuff:
- Data compression, to reduce the size of the .DAT data file
- The full and complete Internal Article Editor (IAE) system
- INI file support for UPDATE.EXE's specific controls, etc.
(Currently, only GUIDE.EXE's controls and settings are saved,
some of which are shared and used by UPDATE.EXE as well.)
- More little suggestions and other "pocket-calculator" type stuff.
(Please keep those ideas, bug detections, and comments coming!)
I'm thinking on calling this upcoming release 1.50, because it does
signify a pretty big jump in features and power. 'Till then!
Version 1.16, 03/07/93 (Maintenance release)
* IAE (Internal Article Editor) Enhancements:
- The system now automatically detects the current date, and
inserts the string as the default in the date field, using the
conventional format YYYYMMDD (instead of MM/DD/YY).
- The system automatically suggests a suitable output file name for
the article by examining its title. All unedited article files
have the extension .ART (for ARTicle, I suppose). The system
uses the first 8 characters of the first "important" word of the
title (thus, initial 'THE ' words are ignored).
For example, the title "Sammy Gets His Wish" would come up as
SAMMY.ART; likewise, the title "The Meglomaniac Monsters of Beta
Hurgleplex IV" would come up as MEGLOMAN.ART. You can, of course,
override the suggested filename with anything you want (so long
as it is a valid DOS filename, etc).
Note that the actual editing and saving of the article is still
under construction, but this is still a pretty nifty feature.
- I didn't mention this before, but after you define a new Index
and/or Cross-Reference item, you can then edit the item in its
associated list box by either double-clicking the item, or by
pressing the spacebar after highlighting the desired item. In
addition, you can remove an item by pressing the Delete key.
Note that duplicate items in the same category are ignored.
- SOMEBODY PLEASE SEND ME SOME FEEDBACK ON THIS IAE STUFF!
* The system now inserts a blank line at the bottom of every article
when displaying on-screen, per a suggestion I received last week.
This is done with both Guide's articles and in Update's reports.
Version 1.16, 03/02/93
* GUIDE Enhancements:
- Added new Window commands: Tile All and Cascade All. These will
arrange the open articles on your desktop in nifty fashons, and
are available in the Window pull-down menu.
- Improved the /LOAD= command-line parameter to include full paths;
thus, to load GuideNET Sammy from the D:\Junk directory, type:
GUIDE /load=d:\junk\sammy
* UPDATE Enhancements:
- Began construction of the Internal Article Editor (IAE). The
dialog box is in place and mostly operational (you can not edit
or clear the text, nor save the finished product yet). I mention
this now for those who are curious and want to play around with
the dialog box -- let me know what you think!
This feature is available in the Utility pull-down menu, and
also by just pressing [ Alt-C ] for Create.
*****************************************************************************
I encourage everyone to respond to this program; I'm open to receiving --
* compliments on what a cool frood I must be for writing this
* complaints on how this is worse that Vogon poetry, and how I must
be "a jerk, a complete knee-biter"
* suggestions for everything from hot-key reassignments, to features
that you want added or removed, and anything else that your roving
minds can contrive
* bug detections, and other dastardly things
Please contact me at [ swbaker@vela.acs.oakland.edu ] or on local bulletin
board systems (in the 313 area of Michigan, USA) -- handle 'swbaker'.
The FTP site where this sucker can be found is --
lexical: vela.acs.oakland.edu
numeric: 141.210.10.2
in the [ /pub/galactic-guide/theguide ] directory.
Be sure to 'login anonymous' and be in BINARY mode (ie, type [ binary ])
before you 'get tgxxx.zip'....
Share and Enjoy!!!!
Steve
swbaker@vela.acs.oakland.edu
"Gravity brings me down..."
%e
*EOA*
*
* End of INFO.NEW
*