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- $zonkpage 1.0
-
- title: Introduction to Zonk
-
- nobrs:
-
- text:{
- <sh>What is it?</sh>
-
-
- Zonk is a program for creating html files. However it is not a WYSIWYG
- editor, in fact it is not an editor at all. Zonk creates html from
- templates and datafiles.
-
- <sh>Why?</sh>
- There seems to be a general consensus that the best html is handwritten
- html. It also seems generally agreed that the <i>concept</i> of cascading
- style sheets (CSS) is a good one. Unfortunately at present, the
- implementation of CSS is not all that it could be. Finally, most sites
- have many pages which are similar and are often built using the
- error-prone 'cut and paste' method. All these problems can be addressed
- by using templates. Zonk is a quick and efficient system for working by
- this method.
-
- <sh>Here are just a few of its features:</sh><ul>
-
- <li>It is fast. A typical datafile/template will be processed in less
- than a second. (Actual runtimes do of course depend on the size of
- the datafile and the complexity of the template)
-
- <li>Both datafiles and templates are plain text files.
-
- <li>The layout of the datafiles is easily understood by a
- non-technical user
-
- <li>Templates can be built quickly by anyone who is familiar with
- elementary programming concepts
-
- <li>Includes a powerful perl-compatible regular expression engine if
- you need to manipulate your data in any way
-
- <li>Can automatically substitute in html entities (things such as
- accents) if required
-
- <li>You can define your own 'pseudo-styles'
-
- <li>Can generate many html files from one datafile.
-
- <li>Can generate 'index' pages of already existing html files
-
- <li>Can read graphic files width and height information for inclusion
- in IMG tags
-
- <li>Very configurable. One minor example of its configurability is that
- you can have the same datafile use a different template depending
- on, oh, the day of the week, the month, the year, the week
- number... and that doesn't just have to be based on today's date
- but can be based on a date variable that you supply.
- </ul>
-
- Zonk's output html is as compliant and reliable as the html you put into
- the template :-) You are in control.
-
- Zonk itself is 100% C (although the tiny !deskzonk frontend is in
- BASIC). I already have versions of the program running under Windows95
- and MacOS 8.5. Zonk is intended as a commercial product for those
- platforms, however as a lifelong user of Acorn systems I thought I would
- make my contribution to the Acorn community by releasing this version on
- a free licence.
-
- Note also that this is a <b>beta</b> release. I would be most surprised if
- there are not some bugs still lurking somewhere. Backup any valuable
- data that you might throw Zonk's way.
-
- As far as I am aware Zonk should run on any RISC systems from OS 3
- onwards. It will attempt to use dynamic areas if available but will
- still work if they are not (although you may need to increase the
- wimpslot). I run an RPC700 so I don't know for sure that it is StrongArm
- compatible but I see no reason why it shouldn't be. It was compiled with
- GCC version 2.7.2.1 and uses the SharedCLibrary, my version of which is
- 4.79, again I'm not sure what the earliest one it would need is.
-
- <sh>Acknowledgements</sh>
- The author of the Perl-compatible regex code (PCRE) included in the
- program is Philip Hazel. All other code has been written by me from
- scratch.
-