WB-MakeInfo

This document describes the complete usage of the WB-MakeInfo package

Version 1.0

Copyright © by Gerhard Leibrock

1 Requirements

Makeinfo runs only with version 2.04 or any higher version of the operating system.

In order to run the WB-MakeInfo package you also need

• Cygnus Ed Professional, a COMMERCIAL (NOT PD or SHAREWARE) product done by ASDG.
• AREXX, gets delivered with every OS 2.x or higher.
• The AmigaGuide package from Commodore (public domain) or any compatible viewer to use the hypertext output.
• A TeX implementation for the Amiga (I recommend PasTeX, a PD package) to use/print out the .dvi output.
• An ASCII text viewer to use the .doc output (e. g. More from workbench)
• the public domain make utility BMake done by Ben Eng or something compatible to it (If you use a different program DO NOT forget to edit the file “Do_It” in the directory “Package” and change the line containing “Bmake” and replace this with your favourite make utility.

2 What is MakeInfo?

MakeInfo was developped by the GNU people in order to provide an easy way to make technical documentation. Nowadays there exist three major kinds of documentation:

Hypertext documentation

It is easy to use and certainly the best kind of electronic documentation.

ASCII documentation

It can be used with primitive viewers, which are available on most platforms. It can be printed out on almost any printer without difficulties.

documentation in .dvi format

Extrem useful for people who don’t like electronic documentation and prefer the printed ones. The .dvi documentation can be shown with a special program and printed out. The printout looks very professional, lots of technical books were written using TeX. It requires TeX installation on the specific system and a good printer.

These three kinds of documentation can easily be generated by just ONE (1) source file in a specific format, called Texinfo. It is easy to learn and the required programs to generate the output are public domain. It is very useful for programmers to save time, because you just have to look at only one file and not at three and you don’t have to learn TeX or the hypertext format, only TeXinfo.

3 Distribution

This package only contains my stuff for the WB usage of MakeInfo. To obtain MakeInfo, AmigaGuide, TeX, or BMake check out at your local BBS, the AmiNet sites, Fish disks or somewhere else.

4 Why WB-MakeInfo?

If you often use Texinfo, to generate your documentation and you like the workbench, then this will be a great help for you. All you have to do is to click on the SetUp icon and enter a path for the MakeInfo package to be installed. It will cost you about 7.5 KB, but you get a full development environment with a primitive sample text.

5 How to use it

Un-Lha the package to anywhere you like to, e. g. the RAM-DISK. If you do have the CBM installer accessible in your system, then click on the “CBM-Install” icon, else you have to do this manually. It is not difficult at all, just read the “CBM-Install” file carefully.

You will be asked for the path to install WB-MakeInfo and after that it will be installed there (Costs about 30 KB). To use the delivered scripts with CEd I recommend to assign them to a function key. If you have done so then you can translate your .texinfo file into a .guide file by just pressing an f-key.

Remember:

The CEd development environment is ONLY able to produce .guide files. If you want to produce .dvi or .doc files then you have to activate the “Do_It” icon.

Warning:

Do not translate the .texi file via WB-MakeInfo and CEd while you watch it with a hypertext viewer. This will cause an error message (Object in use …)

5.1 Setting up a .texinfo environment

Double click on the “WBMG-SetUp” icon. You will see a GUI to specify the path where the .texinfo environment should be installed in.

1. Path You can either enter the path by hand or click on the gadget containing the “F” to use the ASL-filerequester.

   Remember:

   The installed .texinfo environment will always be in a directory “Package”. E. g. if you specified “Work:Texts” then the setup program will generate a directory “Package” and copy the needed files into it.

2. Name of .texi file The name of the source code file. This name will also be used automatically for the .doc and .dvi file.

   E. g.:

   If you entered the name “MyDoc” then the .dvi, .doc files will also be named “MyDoc”.

3. Name of .guide file The name of the hypertext output can be choosen seperately.
4. Install Install the package
5. Forget it Quit program

5.1.1 The created icons and files

Now you have installed WBMakeInfo and you see a new directory named “Package”. You can re-name it and give it a name you like more. If you enter it, you will see 8 created icons:

Do_It

Click it double to activate the execution of the makefile “Make4Guide”.

Make4Guide

The makefile for your texinfo document. Double click on it to get it loaded into CEd. The only line of importance for you is the 6th line: Here you can specify what output to create, a .dvi file, a .doc file (ASCII) or a .guide file (AmigaGuide format). Simply erase guide, doc or dvi if you don’t want it to be created.

AllGuide.err

This file contains the error messages created. Double click on it to see them.

filename.texi

The “source-code” for your documents. Double click on it to get it loaded into CEd. A simple file was created automatically to make editing easier.

filename.guide

This file will contain the .guide output. Double click on it when created and it will be loaded into AmigaGuide (SYS:UTILITIES/AMIGAGUIDE)

filename.doc

This file will contain the .doc output. Double click on it when created and it will be loaded into the ASCII viewer More from workbench (SYS:UTILITIES/More). This file will contain a plain ASCII version of your text. filename.dvi This file will contain the .dvi output created by virtex. Double click on it when created and it will be loaded into ShowDVI, a previewer for .dvi files delivered with the public domain software package PasTeX (Available on Fred Fish CDs or from any good PD seller/distributor).

Del-TeX-Trash

This icon will delete files that were created by virtex (creation of .dvi file) and that are no longer needed. Be warned ! It delets without warning !

5.2 Working with CEd and ARexx

Just click on the .texi file and the source will be loaded into CEd. Here you can edit it and “compile” it using the ARexx scripts (The best way is to assign them to a function key.). The ARexx scripts are

1. Start_MGuide.ced Used to start the MakeInfo program from CEd. Should be invoked to start translation.
2. MGuideErr.ced Used by “Start_MGuide.ced” to help the user to debug the source. It can also be invoked seperately by the user.

E. g.:

I did assign the “Start_MGuide.ced” command to F3, so I start compiling by pressing F3. The “MGuideErr.ced” command was assigned to F4, so I can debug the file by pressing F4.

5.3 Producing .dvi or .doc files

It is not possible to generate .dvi or .doc files via the “Start_MGuide.ced” command because this is unnecessary and ment too much work for me. The best way is to work with the environment and produce .guide files for syntax checks. If everything works ok, then use ”Do_It”. The only way to produce a .dvi or .doc file is to start “Do_It” from workbench. By default it generates a .guide, .doc and .dvi file. If you don’t like this default setting simply edit “Make4Guide” by double clicking it and change the line “all: guide doc dvi” to something like “all: doc dvi” for just generating .doc and .dvi files.

Index

Table of Contents

About This Document

This document was generated on July 22, 2024 using texi2html 5.0.

The buttons in the navigation panels have the following meaning:

where the Example assumes that the current position is at Subsubsection One-Two-Three of a document of the following structure:

• 1. Section One
  • 1.1 Subsection One-One
    • ...
  • 1.2 Subsection One-Two
    • 1.2.1 Subsubsection One-Two-One
    • 1.2.2 Subsubsection One-Two-Two
    • 1.2.3 Subsubsection One-Two-Three     <== Current Position
    • 1.2.4 Subsubsection One-Two-Four
  • 1.3 Subsection One-Three
    • ...
  • 1.4 Subsection One-Four

This document was generated on July 22, 2024 using texi2html 5.0.