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liff.txt
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1995-12-28
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8KB
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181 lines
The Meaning of Liff
-------------------
What is it?
-----------
The file LIFF.HLP is a WinHelp 3.1 implementation of "The Meaning of Liff"
by Douglas Adams (the author of the five books in the increasingly inaccurately
named "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" trilogy) and John Lloyd. It's
a hilariously funny kind of dictionary which uses words from various places
around the world (mainly UK) and gives them new meanings describing various
experiences, feelings, situations etc. in life. As the authors state in the
preface to the book:
In Life*, there are many hundreds of common experiences, feelings, situations
and even objects which we all know and recognize, but for which no words exist.
On the other hand, the world is littered with thousands of spare words which
spend their time doing nothing but loafing about on signposts pointing at
places.
Our job, as we see it, is to get these words down off the signposts and into
the mouths of babes and sucklings and so on, where they can start earning their
keep in everyday conversation and make a more positive contribution to society.
Douglas Adams
John Lloyd
*And, indeed, in Liff.
A lot of the words in the book are explained by referencing to other words in
the book, making it very suitable for a WinHelp implementation.
This implementation is as close to the book as it can get by using WinHelp.
There's even included a picture of it, which is natural size on a standard
640x480 VGA monitor, for which the appearance of LIFF.HLP is optimized.
It will, however, always adjust itself upon startup to look its best on the
monitor and resolution it's used on, including 3D look in dialog boxes etc.
The book also contains an extensive "Index of Meanings", which is implemented
by using keywords accessible through the "Search"-button.
This WinHelp version also includes all the small maps showing where some of
the places are located on the globe (most of them are in the UK), in addition
to the ability to do a full text search by using the "Search+"-button and jump
randomly between topics by using the "Random"-button.
Installation:
-------------
Copy LIFF.ZIP to a new empty directory (e.g. C:\LIFF) and unzip the file (you
probably already did that). Then create an entry for LIFF.HLP in your shell.
As the command line you specify: "WINHELP.EXE LIFF.HLP" (without the quotes).
Be sure to use version 3.1 of WINHELP.EXE and remember to set the working
directory to where LIFF.HLP resides. Finally, you should use the included
icon LIFF.ICO as the visual representation.
Further Information:
--------------------
LIFF.HLP was originally structured by using Xantippe from IRIS Media Systems.
It may be distributed freely as long as this file LIFF.TXT, the icon file
LIFF.ICO, the index file LIFF.IND and the six DLL's LIFF.DLL, FTENGINE.DLL,
FTUI.DLL, MVAPI.DLL, WH3D.DLL and CTL3D.DLL are distributed along with it,
preferably as the original LIFF.ZIP file. The source file to "The Meaning of
Liff" is included in the latest version of Xantippe, which can also be found
in a shareware version on CompuServe. Compared to the help file that can be
build from the automatically generated files from Xantippe for version 3.0
or 3.1 of the Help Compiler, the following changes have been made to this
WinHelp 3.1 specific version:
- Uses the CITATION, COPYRIGHT and ICON options.
- Uses a MRB for the book picture, ensuring proper appearance on monochrome
monitors and printers.
- Uses italics in the few places it's used in the book. (Italics is not
supported by Xantippe directly).
- Shortened context strings and the font table for size optimizations.
- Added a lot of "cosmetic" changes. The textual contents are the same, but
there has been added a gray non-scrolling region to the headings, and the
Contents topic shows a picture of the original book. When pressed, the
Preface topic appears.
- Added the "A-Z" secondary window, with a keyboard that can be used for
choosing the letter you wish to see words beginning with. The keyboard
always shows the letter the current topic begins with in its "pressed down"
state. Below the keyboard is a small map, showing where some of the places
beginning with the same letter as the current topic are located on the globe.
The places shown in the maps can also be chosen directly. Both the main and
"A-Z" windows appear on fixed positions upon startup, which are automatically
adjusted based on the actual monitor and resolution in use.
- Added the letter the current topic is beginning with to the end of the title
in the main window. The title changes dynamically to always show the letter
currently being viewed, and is also shown below the icon when the main window
is minimized.
- Added the "Preface"-button, which jumps directly to the Preface topic when
pressed.
- Added the "Search+"-button to the button bar, which gives access to do a full
text search on any word in "The Meaning of Liff". Press the "Hints"-button
in the Search+ dialog box to learn how to perform a full text search. When
a search has been performed, CTRL+F can be used to toggle between the main
window and the "Topics Found" window.
- Added the "Random"-button, which jumps to a randomly chosen topic when
pressed.
- Added a floating menu with quick access to the Search and Search+ facilities.
The floating menu is activated by clicking the right mouse button anywhere in
the two windows.
- Added the "Copy Topic" item to the "Edit"-menu, which copies the current
topic to the Clipboard. In addition to this, the style of the windows has
been changed and the menu has been trimmed so it appears more like an
application.
- Added the "About The Meaning of Liff..." item to the "Help"-menu.
- Added the possibility to press the "Esc"-key to exit.
- Added better navigation controls to the button bar ( Up [<< << >> >>] ),
and optimized browse sequences, as described below.
Navigating "The Meaning of Liff":
---------------------------------
Being a dictionary, "The Meaning of Liff" is very hierarchically structured:
Contents --------- A --------- Aasleagh (1st with "A")
| |---- Aberbeeg (2nd with "A")
| |---- .
| |---- .
| |---- .
| |---- Aynho (Last with "A")
|
|---- B --------- Babworth (1st with "B")
| |---- Baldock (2nd with "B")
| |---- .
| |---- .
| |---- .
| |---- Burwash (Last with "B")
|
| .
| .
| .
|---- Z --------- Zeal Monachorum (1st and last with "Z")
All words beginning with the same letter becomes a separate browse sequence.
Xantippe doesn't generate a browse sequence for the first level (A,B,...,Z),
so this has been added. These are controlled with the standard Browse Buttons
"<<" and ">>". In addition to these, the "[<<"-button (press the "["-key) goes
to the first topic in the current sequence, and the ">>]"-button (press the
"]"-key) goes to the last topic in the current sequence. Finally, the
"Up"-button has been added. In contradiction to the standard "Back"-button,
which takes you back to the last *viewed* topic, the "Up"-button takes you one
*level* up in the hierarchy. If you for instance are viewing topic "Baldock"
after having viewed topic "Babworth" (by pressing the ">>"-button), the
"Back"-button will take you back to topic "Baldock", where the "Up"-button
will take you one level up to the list of all the words beginning with "B".
All buttons are grayed according to the current context.
I hope you have as much fun using LIFF.HLP as I had creating it. Enjoy!
Michael Malcolm Andersen
E-mail: mma@datashopper.dk