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-= HTML2TEXT v1.50 =-
HTML2TEXT v1.50
1997-1998 (c) Gavin Spearhead
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
I. What is it?
HTML2TEXT is a utility that converts HTML files to plain text. Optionally
it also tries to figure out if the HTML file is well-constructed.
II. What's the legal stuff?
All Rights Reserved.
Permission to use, copy, and distribute this software and its
documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided
that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that
copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting
documentation, and that the name Gavin Spearhead not be used in
advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software
without specific, written prior permission.
*** DISCLAIMER ***
GAVIN SPEARHEAD DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE,
INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS, IN NO
EVENT SHALL GAVIN SPEARHEAD BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF
USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR
OTHER TORTUOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR
PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
***
III. General information
This documentation is written in HTML format in way that it is readable in
a text viewer as good as possible and as long as the HTML format allows
it. A to-text-converted version is also included.
All my documentations are, since about June 1997, written in HTML. Prior
to that date they were written in plain text. This means a) that I can put
them on the big web, b) they're readable at all time and c) at all
machines that have a browser for it and d) they're easily converted to
other formats, such as Postscript, Wordperfect and of course plain-text e)
I can easily make formatted documentations.
Any bugs, errors, suggestions, thought, ideas, etc should be sent to the
author, these also includes errors in the documentation. Also the
existence of not supported HTML-tags or entity sequences can be sent to
the author, along with a description, restrictions and options. No matter
how puny or important your help is, I need your help to improve this
program.
If you want to become a beta tester of this program contact me and I'll
send you the details. Unfortunately I cannot give rewards other then
gratitude.
You are encouraged to register this piece of software. This means that you
will either receive the latest version when it is released or a note that
a new version is released. It also gives me an idea about how many people
use this program and how it's spread. The information provided to register
will not be used for other purpose then HTML2TEXT and by any other persons
other then me.
There are three ways to register:
i. Start your web-browser and fill in the form.
ii. Convert register.htm to a text file, edit it to fill in the
entries and email it to me.
iii. Same as above but print it and send it to my postal address.
Be sure to enter the correct email address on the form! If not I might not
be able to send you the registration key.
Note that registration is Free of charge!
When you're registered you will become a private registration key, so that
your name is written when you execute the program instead of Unregistered.
However no other function will be available in the registered version. In
other words the unregistered version is not crippled This file will be
sent via email if possible. This is currently the only way to receive the
registration key. When you order (see below) you will automatically be
registered and the key can be found on the disk.
IV. Which files are contained in the package?
HTML2TXT.EXE The executable.
HTML2TXT.CFG Configuration file with options.
HTML2TXT.INI Ini-file with entity references.
HTML2TXT.HTM Documentation for HTML2TEXT in HTML format.
HTML2TXT.TXT Documentation for HTML2TEXT in plain text format.
REGISTER.HTM Registration form in HTML format.
LONGFILE.BTM 4DOS batch file to convert HTML files which does support
Windows 95 long filenames.
If one of the files is missing, throw the package away and ask the author
for a new and complete copy. The address is at the end of the file.
V. What does it do?
HTML2TEXT converts HyperText Mark-up Language (HTML) files to plain-text
(ASCII) files. The following rules are applies for this:
* The title is optionally displayed on the first line of the output
file. Optionally the complete filename plus path are written too.
* Entity references (&...;) are converted to character sequences
according to the input file or pre-programmed characters.
* Any tags will perform the task according to the HTML specification
as good as possible, note that some tags cannot have any output in
plain ASCII text files (eg. blinking, fonts, colours).
* Newlines and tabs are converted to spaces and are removed if
obsolete, as are spaces.
* Lines are written and justified according to settings, lines are
wrapped by words when they are too long. Word delimiters are
user-definable.
* Tables are reformatted and forms are output so that they can be
filled in after conversion. The output of forms is highly
user-specifiable.
* Warnings are generated on ill-constructed tags or entity references.
VI. How to start it?
A quick start instruction is to type on the commandline:
HTML2TXT file.htm
This will convert the file "file.htm" to "file.txt".
The full syntax of HTML2TEXT is:
HTML2TXT <filespecification> @<listfile> <options>
<Filespecification> is the name of the files to convert, it may include
wildcards (* and ?). More than one file specification may appear on the
command line. Note that long filenames (Windows 95/NT) are not supported.
This means that input filenames have to be of the 8.3 format (Every W95/NT
file has a 8.3 filename and optionally a long filename). The output will
always be a 8.3 filename. 4DOS users (v5.5+) can use the %@SFN[...]
function to get the short filename of a long filename (see 4DOS
documentation for details). A 4DOS batch file is also included to perform
conversion of files with long filenames, see below. Windows 95 users can
drag and drop files to the executable, Windows then uses the short
filename anyway.
@<listfile> is a name of a file that contains the names of files to
convert. The <listfile> may not contain wildcards. Each of these filenames
must appear on a single line. Empty lines are permitted and files may have
leading or trailing whitespace characters. The names of these files have
the same restrictions as the files from the <filespecification>. You
cannot use options in a listfile.
<options> can be the following:
-a- Do not display text for links.
-b- Do not mark bold text.
-b+ Mark bold text by embracing it with stars (*).
-b:<chars> Specifies the two characters used to mark bold text.
Exactly two characters have to be given.
-B- Don't print borders for tables.
-B:<num> Use predefined border <num>, where <num> is
1. 7 bit ASCII (using -|+)
2. Single lines
3. Double lines
4. Double horizontal lines and single vertical lines
5. Single horizontal lines and double vertical lines
6. Single frame only
7. Double frame only
8. Double frame, single cell separators
9. Single frame, double cell separators
For a graphical example of those tables look at the config
file.
-c Automatically create directory when the specified output
path does not exist.
-c- Ask to create when the specified output path does not
exist.
-C:<num> Sets the charset to use. <num> can be any number from 1 to
9. By default one is chosen, except when windows is
detected (in enhanced mode, but who cares) then the
default is 3.
1 : ASCII (7 bit)
2 : Extended ASCII (8 bit)
3 : Windows ISO 8859/1
4-9: user definable
-f Get input from standard input, then read the files
specified. Input from standard input will be converted and
then output to standard output.
-f- Only read the files specified.
-F- Do not display input fields in forms.
-h Do not display HTML2TEXT messages. (hush)
-h- Do display HTML2TEXT messages.
-H Stop after reading </html>.
-H- Continue after reading </html>.
-i- Do not mark italic text.
-i+ Mark italic text by embracing it with slashes (/).
-i:<chars> Specifies the two characters used to mark italic text.
Exactly two characters have to be given.
-I- Don't display any text for images.
-l:<chars> Specifies the characters used for list elements of
unordered lists. The first is for the type Square, the
second for Disc and the third for Circle. None of the
three may be omitted.
-L:<char> Specifies the character to use for filling up empty spaces
in text fields of forms.
-m Mark errors in the output file.
-m- Do not mark errors in the output file.
-N Display the full path of the converted file in the output.
-N- Do not display the full path of the converted file in the
output.
-o:<char> Controls the overwriting policy for existing files <char>
can be one of the following:
* A: Always overwrite
* V: Never overwrite
* D: Always append
No suffix means that the user will be asked.
-O- Don't use a log file.
-O+ Use a log file. If none is specified previously
HTML2TXT.LOG will be used.
-O:<File> Use <File> as a log file.
-p:<num> Set the indenting for lists to <num>.
-P- Do not display a progress indicator
-P+ Display a progress indicator. In the upper left corner a
wheel will be shown
-q Treat balancing of quotes strictly.
-q- Treat balancing of quotes relaxed. A '>' always ends a
tag.
-s Output will be redirected to standard output.
-s- Files will be used for output, the output filename will be
derived from the output path and the filename entered.
-S Stretch tables to the full width of the page. This looks
neat when you've more short tables with similar data.
-S- Do not stretch tables to the full width of the page. The
width of the table is the minimum width required.
-t Reformat tables.
-t- Simple table conversion. Just insert a number of spaces
between elements.
-T Display the title in the output file as -= <title> =-.
-T2 The same as -T but omits the -= and =-.
-T- Do not display any title.
-u- Do not mark underlined text.
-u+ Mark underlined text by embracing it with underscores (_).
-u:<chars> Specifies the two characters used to mark underlined text.
Exactly two characters have to be given.
-v Display version info.
-w Warn for HTML-errors in the source file.
-w- Do not warn for HTML-errors in the source file.
-W:<num> Set the line length to <num>. Maximum line length is 255.
-W- No line wrapping will be performed.
-W Set line length to the screenwidth (usually 80).
-y- Do not use hyphenation.
-? Displays short a help.
I know the program suffers from creeping featuritis!
WARNING
Most options are different from the options of the previous versions of
HTML2TEXT. This was necessary to maintain some logic in the naming of the
options, which have increased immensely in number. Otherwise the
characters used would be quite cryptic. Please read the section above
carefully. And options are now case-sensitive.
You can concatenate options to save space. Except -O:<File> which must be
the last. Better use the config file to set this variable.
The result file will have the same name as the original file, but with the
extension specified in the config-file (default is .txt), unless the
original extension was the same as the extension of the output file, then
the extension will be `.tx1' (always).
All messages are written to standard error, unless hush is set. 4DOS users
can also redirect standard error or use the Windows clipboard by the
device `clip:'.
VII. Can I use another way to specify options?
Yes, you can. There are two other ways to specify the options. First of
all you can use the HTML2TXT.CFG file (see next section). And second you
can use the environment variable H2T_SW. You can set all options in this
variable.
Eg. set H2T_SW=-b-u-T2
will switch marking of underlined text and bold text off and switch the
title to setting 2. The leading `-' can be omitted.
VIII. What do the files HTML2TXT.INI & HTML2TXT.CFG do?
* HTML2TXT.INI
This file contains the translation table for ampersand sequences also
known as entity references, ie. a sequence of characters of the form:
&some_text;. The lines are of following format:
<identifier>="<result>"
Where the <identifier> is the text between the `&' and the `;'.
<result> is the text that will replace entity reference. The quotes
are optional. The text can contain escape sequences (C-style) of the
format \<char> where <char> can be:
# s : a space
# n : a newline
Or of the format \<number> then the character which ASCII value equals
<number> is inserted. Every other character is literally insert,
including quotes and bashes.
entity references of the format nnn; not specified in the
config-file will be converted to the ASCII value nnn, as are entity
references of the format nn;, the hexadecimal representation.
* HTML2TXT.CFG
This file contains the various options that can be set. These are all
eloquently commented in the file itself. So take a peek at that file.
Beware that some options have side effects, eg. turning off line
wrapping means also that text will not be centered.
In both files any line starting with a semicolon (;) is treated as
comments and thus ignored. In the config-file lines starting with a
double cross (#) are also treated as comments.
Both files will be sought for in the current directory first and then
the directory from where HTML2TEXT was started. Usually these files
will be placed in the same directory as HTML2TXT.EXE, a directory in
your path. The path to ini-file can also be specified in the
config-file, if so it will be sought there first.
IX. What is the order of reading options?
When HTML2TEXT starts all options are set to the default value. Then the
HTML2TXT.CFG file is read. Next the environment variable H2T_SW is read
and finally the commandline options are read. This means that any
redefining of options will overwrite the previous settings.
X. Which tags does it recognise?
Tag What it does in HTML2TEXT
A Checks optionally link_text or name_text is written
contrary to previous versions, this one always needs a
closing tag.
ABBR Checks.
ADDRESS See tag: I.
APPLE Checks, ignores text between <APPLET></APPLET>.
AREA Ignores.
B Checks, Optionally writes BOLD-token.
BASE Ignores.
BASEFONT Ignores.
BDO Checks.
BGSOUND Ignores.
BIG Checks.
BLINK Checks.
BLOCKQUOTE Checks, indents.
BODY Checks.
BR Writes a newline.
BUTTON Writes a button and uses button_text.
CAPTION Determines a caption for tables, Checks.
COLGROUP Ignores.
CENTER Checks, centers when linewrap is on.
CITE see tag: I.
CODE See tag: Pre.
COL Checks.
COMMENT Ignores anything between <COMMENT></COMMENT>,. Checks.
DD Inserts newline and indents.
DEL Checks.
DFN See tag: I.
DIR See tag: OL.
DIV Checks, writes a newline at both open and close tag.
DL Starts a definition list, Checks.
DT Inserts a newline.
EM see tag: I.
EMBED Ignores.
FIELDSET Checks.
FRAME Ignores.
FRAMESET Checks.
FONT Checks.
FORM Checks.
H Checks.
HD1 Writes the text to screen with embracing newlines.
HD2
HD3
HD4
HD5
HD6
HEAD Checks.
HR Writes a line of `='s in case size >3 or else a line of
`-'s. The length is absolute or relative set according to
the width value.
HTML Everything after </HTML> is optionally ignored, Checks.
I Checks, Optionally writes ITALIC-token.
IFRAME Checks.
IMG Ignored, Optionally writes image_text.
INPUT Ignored.
ISINDEX Write a prompt plus optionally [ Input ].
KBD See B.
LI Writes a list element identifier, for ULs a * or specified
in config-file, for OL a number, parameter type and value
used.
LEGEND Checks.
LINK Ignores.
LISTING See tag: Pre.
MAP Checks.
MARQUEE Checks.
MENU See tag: OL.
META Ignores.
NEXTID Ignores.
NOBR Checks.
NOFRAMES Checks.
NOSCRIPT Checks.
OBJECT Checks.
OL An ordered list, Checks, type parameter used.
OPTION Ignores.
OPTGROUP Checks.
P Starts a new paragraph and adjusts alignment.
PARAM Ignores.
PRE Output as is, Checks (line wrap is not ignored, if on).
Q Checks.
S see tag: strike.
SAMP Checks.
SCRIPT Ignores anything between <SCRIPT></SCRIPT>, Checks.
SELECT Checks.
SMALL Checks.
SOUND Ignores.
SPACER Ignores.
SPAN Checks.
STRIKE Checks.
STRONG See tag: B.
STYLE This is treated as it were a comment. Technically it sets
info on various colours, etc.
SUB Checks.
SUP Checks.
TABLE Checks, starts/finishes a table.
TBODY Checks.
TD Defines a table cell.
TEXTAREA Ignores.
TFOOT Checks.
THEAD Checks.
TH Defines a table header cell.
TITLE Writes the title, if within <HEAD></HEAD>, Checks.
TR Defines a table row.
TT Checks.
U Checks.
UL An unordered list, Checks, type parameter used.
VAR See tag: Pre.
WBR Ignores.
!DOCTYPE Ignores.
These are all the tags from the HTML-specification version 4.0. Not all
are currently fully implemented although most are. Also included are some
browser specific tags, for either Netscape as Microsoft Internet Exploder.
The full specification of HTML can be found here.
Here Checks means that for every open tag a matching closing tag is
sought. In most cases the order of the closing tags are not relevant, but
sometimes the output will be unexpected when tags are closed in the wrong
order.
Here Ignores means that the tag is just ignored, no output is generated
and no checks are performed. Mostly these will be tag that set options to
the output that have no meaning in plain text files. What would a client
side map, for example do in a text file?
Some tags may have optional closing tags, these are ignored and not
checked. Eg. <tr>,<td>,<th>,<p>. Changed from previous versions is that
the anchor tag (<a ...>) now always needs a closing tag, although for most
name definitions these are usually left out. Some of those tags need a
closing tag (preceded by a slash), these will be checked, if the tag was
opened before. It will also be checked if those tags are closed in the
right order. Furthermore is checked that tags are not nested if not
necessary (eg. bold), this might indicate a missing slash in the tag in
the second tag. Lots of tags are simply ignored and thus generate no
output. Some tags optionally generate output. Any text after </html> is
optionally ignored. Mainly to prevent garbage output. Some tags cause the
following text to be ignored until a closing tag appears.
Unknown tags are ignored and optionally a message is generated.
Note that this just specifies the actions taken by HTML2TEXT and not what
the HTML specification says about tags, however I have tried to implement
the tags close to the specification as possible.
Tables generate the following output. Every table row is written on at
least one line, and every row yields a linefeed. Table columns are
separated by at least one space or other cell separator. Some options are
implemented for tables, but currently do not all work very well, a row can
only be affected by at most one rowspan and one colspan. Also text won't
be stretched to the full length of cells with rowspans, the cells below
will be empty instead. Colspan is currently implemented, the content of
the cells will be stretched of the number of columns according to the
collspan. Tables are squeezed to a minimum size or strectched to the full
width, if linewrap is chosen. Otherwise a cell will be of the length of
the longest cell in the column. The squeezing and stretching of cells is
done is quite a rough fashion. For long tables check out the config-file
to set some parameters so that those are handled well too (who uses tables
larger than 256 x 10 with cells of more than 64 KB, however some people
build their whole pages in a table...). if you do you will have to
increase the max_rows and the max_cols in the config-file. If this is
necessary the most likely error messages are error 13 and error 14. Also
possible are error 7 and error 12. Except for error 12 these errors are
fatal errors. Occasionally this may also lead a situation in which your
machine seems not to respond. Too long cells, ie larger than 64k will be
truncated.
Nested tables aren't supported either, those will be treated as if the
notables option is set to on. Only the outer-table will be formatted.
XI. What does it output?
HTML2TEXT can have two kinds of output:
1. It can just throw all output to standard output. This means that
all files specified are concatenated to stdout. This also means that
one can `pipe' or redirect the output directly.
2. It can create files with extension specified in the config-file (or
`tx1' in case the input has that extension). If the output already
exists, the user is asked to confirm overwriting of the file.
Note that all messages are written to standard error. This is because one
needs to make a distinction between the converted text and the additional
info output by HTML2TEXT. Thus any messages are written to the screen even
if stdout is redirected. Standard error can be redirected as well btw
(however command.com does not support it). Also the hush option will
prevent output to stderr.
When the output path specified in the config file does not exist, by
default, the user is asked whether the path should be created. When the
answer is no or the creation did not succeed the current path is used.
HTML2TEXT sometimes uses temporary files to store data. These are of the
format H2T_xxxx.$$$. where the xxxx stands for a number. Those files can
safely be deleted after using HTML2TEXT. Most of the time the program
handles that itself. However the files are not deleted on fatal errors or
user interruptions.
XII. How does it get input?
HTML2TEXT can get input from two sources. First it can read files
specified on the commandline, wildcards are permitted and from the
listfile. Secondly the input can be derived from the console. In other
words input can be redirected from standard input. Use the -f option to
set redirection on. If no filename is specified, it expects input from
standard input too. This means that programmes can `pipe' their output to
HTML2TEXT and also input can be redirected from files. Eg.
type myhtml.htm | html2txt -f
This means that type will output the myhtml.htm file to stdout and it will
be `piped' to HTML2TXT. Practically this way will have the same effect as
html2txt myhtml.htm -s
The output from redirection from standard input will always be sent to
standard output, that means that if it has to be sent to a file,
redirection has to be used again. Eg.
type myhtml.htm | html2txt -f > myhtml.txt
Now the output will be written to a file called myhtml.txt.
If files are specified on the command line as well, the output will still
depend on the standard_output parameter.
For usage of redirection and `piping' check the manuals of the commandline
interpreter (eg. command.com or 4dos.com).
XIII. What is printed in the log files?
The log file contains for each file it converts the full path of the input
file and the full path of the output file. In addition to that the date
and time will be printed. When standard input or output is used <stdin>
and <stdout> will be printed instead. Also it contains all output written
to the screen during conversion. However each line will be preceded by two
double crosses (`#').
XIV. Errors and Warnings
Errors
Error Error string Description
1 Illegal parameter. A command line parameter was
not recognised.
2 No such file. No file was found matching the
file name specification.
3 No filename specified. No file specification was found
on the command line.
4 Config-file not found. The program could not locate
the config-file, which is
usually found in the current
directory or in the directory
containing html2txt.exe.
5 Ini-file not found. The program could not locate
the ini-file (see error 4).
6 Error in ini-file. One entry in the ini-file was
not defined.
7 Not enough memory. There was not enough memory to
execute the program.
8 File could not be opened. One input file could not be
found or opened.
9 Error in config-file. One entry in the config-file
was not defined.
10 Too many entity references in The ini-file contains too many
ini-file. codes to hold in memory.
Increase the value in the
config file.
11 File skipped. The file could not be
converted. The output file
already exists and do not
overwrite was chosen.
12 Heap corrupted. Memory is being corrupted
during the conversion, mostly
of tables.
13 Too many rows in table. The table contains more rows
than the program can keep in
memory.
14 Too many columns in table. The table contains more columns
than the program can keep in
memory.
15 Specified path is illegal. The ini-file could not be found
in the specified path.
16 Could not create temporary There is not enough space on
file. the disk or there are not
enough handles to open a
temporary file.
17 File writing error: Disk full. An error occurred while writing
a file, most like is that the
disk is full.
Warnings
Warning Warning String Description
256 Unrecognised HTML-code. The HTML-code was not
recognised, probably not
defined.
257 Ill-constructed HTML-code. The HTML-code was different
from the one expected,
probably a closing tag
forgotten or a missing `/' in
a tag.
258 Illegal list item. The list item or list was of
an illegal type.
259 Semicolon expected. The semicolon after an entity
reference is missing. However
there seems to be some
decreasing use of the
semicolon.
260 Illegal token. A token was encountered which
was not legal in the context.
Mostly those will be > or &.
261 Ill-constructed entity The entity reference is not
reference. defined in the ini-file.
262 Misplaced tag, expected The tag appeared outside of
within <head>...</head>. the head section, usually this
is the title tag.
263 HTML-tag starts with space. The HTML tag starts with a
space character.
264 Invalid list type. The type specified for a list
item or a list was illegal.
265 Unexpected `>' encountered. A greater-than token was
encountered without a matching
less than token.
266 LI without list. An LI tag was encountered
outside a list section.
267 DD without definition list. An DD tag was encountered
outside a definition list.
268 DT without definition list. An DT tag was encountered
outside a definition list.
269 Tables within tables not A table section within a table
supported. was encountered.
270 Table cell truncated. A table cell contained more
than 65K data.
271 Output path could not be The specified output path
created, default path used. could not be used or created.
Probably one of the
directories in the path is a
file.
XV. What does LONGFILE.BTM do?
LONGFILE.BTM is a simple 4DOS batch file that uses HTML2TEXT to convert
HTML-files to TEXT-files. This file will use Windows 95 long filenames.
However this batch file has some limitations.
* Existing files will always be overwritten.
* Extension of the ouput file will always be .txt.
* No output to the screen is generated, such as error, warning etc.
* It needs 4DOS 6.00 or better to run (maybe 4DOS 5.5 works too).
There is no guarantee or whatsoever that this program will work correctly
or even something near that. It has been tested very little and is
probably error infested, when using commandline options. Use it at your
own reponsibility. Further you are encouraged to improve the working of
the batch file and send those versions to me.
Usage:
LONGFILE.BTM <filespecification>
Where <filespecification> is the name of the file you want to convert.
Wildcards are permitted and you can have multiple file specification on a
line.
Use this batch file at your own risk! It is not well tested. Future
edition will probably have more advanced methods of using W95 long
filenames. The source code is included, however, so that one can
experiment with it a little.
XVI. Why does it output look weird sometimes?
Some people misuse HTML tags. For example <pre>...</pre> sections are used
to insert newlines in the output. Or tables are used to define the layout
of a whole page. In graphical browser, such as Netscape, this may lead to
the intended result. However in a text-based system this may lead to large
gaps of newlines and empty sections. And of course small columns with
useful information.This is not a bug in HTML2TEXT but usually a result of
lousy written HTML-codes, since HTML2TEXT tries to conform to the
specification as good as possible. Most of the authors of such pages do
not even bother to try and understand the HTML specs.
Other `weird things' happen when some one writes something similar to the
following fragment of HTML-code:
Some text and<b> this </b>is very important.
This would like like in the out as:
Some text and* this *is very important.
The spaces are at the `wrong' side of `*'. This is just what is done by
the program (This probably is what Netscape does too but you cannot see it
(or are the spaces slightly wider?)). The spaces are made bold too. Do
remember that most tags are not word delimiters. Some are tho treated that
way, such as <br> and <p>.
One final word about weird output. The program does not remove trailing
spaces. Mostly this is not necessary. But if it is necessary you'll have
to do it yourself. Most good editors however have an option to remove the,
The reason why the trailing spaces are not removed is that it will degrade
performance drastically.
XVII. The program works so slow what happened?
In most cases the program does work quite fast. However on an older
machine it may be that it runs quite slow. Mostly this is due to
conversion of tables which takes quite some time. Anyway here are some
hints to make it run faster (some are quite obvious):
* Run the program in DOS not in windoze mode. Especially windoze DOS
boxes are terribly slow. Also full screen DOS mode is slower than real
DOS mode.
* Use diskcaches to speed up reading and writing data. Even though
HTML2TXT uses buffers for reading and writing.
* Use a ramdrive for working directory. This will speed up conversion
of tables. Be sure however to have enough space free.
* Removes any comment or empty lines from both the ini and config
files and remove lines that are set to default values from the config
file.
* Remove any lines of entity references from the ini-file that you
will not use. And lines starting with a double cross (`#') that are
converted to the ASCII value.
* Switch notables on. This converts tables quicker but uglier.
* Turn warnings off. This slightly increases speed.
* Disable printing of links, anchors, images and input. These can be
somewhat time consuming. Since the texts need to be parsed.
XVIII. What's with those version numbers
Version numbers are defined into several sections.
In the first place there is a major version number, 1 currently. Which is
followed by a dot. Then there is the minor version number, 50 now. The
version is followed by a single character. `a' is a alpha release which is
never released, only for my usage, lots of new functions have to be
implemented or finished still. `b' is the beta release and most likely the
normal release, since this version would not change much more, except for
some bug fixes. `c' will denote an updated version from the beta release.
Then there are internal revision. This number will be increased as changes
are implemented each time. Plus a data of last editing will be entered (in
Frisian). This date should be the same as the date that your operating
system returns.
XIX. Problems & Open Issues
* Forms
Forms may look a bit silly when they are wider than the maximum width
of a line, especially within tables.
* Tables
Tables are reformatted in a rather simplified manner (see above)
Future editions will have improved table processing.
Large tables may produce erroneous output (one cell may not contain
more than 65k bytes the rest is truncated). Too many columns in a
table will terminate the program.
* Too many newline
Some combinations of tags will result in too many newlines. However
most of those are fixed now.
XX. How to obtain a new copy of HTML2TEXT?
There are several ways to obtain a copy of html2text:
1. Download it here: http://www.noord.bart.nl/~wieger1/h2t150b.zip
2. Write an email to me and ask. I will return the latest copy
attached to the reply as zipped archive.
3. Write to my postal address and ask. Be sure to include enough
(Dutch! no other currency will be accepted) money to cover the
postage. Also include the return address. For Dutch return addresses
include a SASE (with enough postage for a diskette). Only 3.5"
diskettes will be used.
4. Look at the nearest BBS or Internet site, for a copy. It is
uploaded to Simtel usually.
XXI. Is this program ported to other platforms?
No, not yet. Currently it only works is DOS (3.3 or better). It should
work in Windows and OS/2 DOS boxes. It should also work with most DOS
emulators on other platforms.
XXII. What's left do work out?
* Better table formatting, include options of alignment, rowspan also
alignment on caption isn't supported well.
* Windows 95 long filenames.
* Ports to other platforms, such as various Unix variants and
Macintosh.
* Lots of small things
XXIII. What changes were made?
1.50
* Added support for multiple character sets for the entity
references.
* Redefined options, options are now case-sensitive too.
* Optionally get rid of the `-=' and `=-' from the title.
* Added customisability of displaying input, image and link
tags.
* Added possibility to specify an output path.
* Added support for single and double quote for string
enclosing within tags.
* Added many new tags from HTML 4.0 Specification.
* Re-wrote the larger part of this documentation.
* Fixed a couple of bugs in generating warnings.
* Fixed a bug in expanding wildcards. It doesn't expand
directories anymore.
* Many smaller bugs fixed.
* Many small cosmetic changes.
* Included LONGFILE.BTM.
* Added support for list files.
* Now word delimiters besides spaces and tabs and newlines,
etc can be defined.
* Added borders for tables and implemented the colspan
attribute.
* The entity references in tag attributes will be converted.
1.21.
* Redirection of input from standard input, is the default
when no filename was specified instead of an error.
* Added performing of underlines.
* fixed a bug in reading a tag.
1.20
* Bugs fixed and internal revisions.
* Table reformatting improved (no more garbage output).
* Multiple file specifications on commandline.
1.10
* Fixed some bugs.
* Improved commandline options parsing.
1.02
* Added formatting of tables.
* Better processing of user input (forms).
* Line wrapping added internally (WORDWRAP.EXE is not
necessary anymore).
* Option added to set line wrap.
* WORDWRAP package not included anymore.
* Amp sequences of the format nnn; can now be defined, but
can be ignored.
* A very nasty bug fixed which corrupted the heap.
* HTML warnings optional.
* Added and removed commandline options.
1.01
* Fixed a nasty bug, when outputting to STDOUT, the number of
errors was displayed before the last text.
* More intelligent algorithm for performing simple text.
* Added value and type options to <LI> tag.
* Added option for title.
* Decreased default value for stack and tag size.
* Documentation converted to HTML format.
1.00
* First version, not released
XXIV. How to reach the author?
Write email to:
wieger1@bart.nl
or
H.A.Schotanus@cs.utwente.nl
Write to:
Gavin Spearhead
Witbreuksweg 387-302
7522 ZA Enschede
The Netherlands
Note that previous email address (wieger@epsilon.nl and
wieger1@noord.bart.nl) are still valid.
This the latest version of this file can be found at
http://www.noord.bart.nl/~wieger1/html2txt.htm.
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Note 1: Anywhere I say Netscape, I mean browser ;-)
Greetings