HTMIPF.

HTMIPF is a freeware html to ipf compiler for OS/2.
The program is written by: J. de Keijzer.
For suggestions or questions email: 101322.3665@compuserve.com.

The program may be distributed, but only when this readme is included!

Command line.

htmipf  {<infile> | /MAP:<mapfile> } { /OUT:<outfile> }

infile : the file to be compiled.
example:
HTMIPF hello.html. The compiler will parse the hello.htm file and all the files
which are referenced in this file and create hello.ipf.
All GIF,TIF,PCX,Win BMP images are automatically
converted to OS/2 bitmap files and put in the current working directory, with
the same name as the image found in the HTML file. UNI0X1.GIF will be translated
to UNI0X1.BMP. The initial file <infile> gets an ipf panel with the name "doc" all
referenced files get a panel name with the reference name. The compiler can create
named panels, see the /MAP: option. The compiler will not generate an index. The final
ipf file must be compiled with the IPFC compiler to get the final document. The IPF
source can be used for .HLP and .INF files.

/MAP:<mapfile>
When this option is used the /OUT:<outfile> becomes mandatory.
This option is used to compile unrelated html file into one ipf file.

example of a map file:
#MyPanelName   hello.htm
#ThisPanel     manual.htm

The compiler starts with reading the hello.htm and gives it the panel
name "MyPanelName". When the file manual.htm is not already compiled and
thus not referenced in hello.htm, the compiler will compile manual.htm and
give it the panel name "ThisPanel". The panel names can be used in 3GL and
4GL programs to access the online help.

/OUT:<outfile>
With this option the filename of the compiled source can be defined. When
not defined, the compiler will create an IPF file with the same name as
the HTML file. This option is mandatory when the /MAP: option is used.


Syntax checking:
Most HTML files are not strict. Open tags are sometimes not closed or
implicitly closed with non related tags. The compiler will give a
warning on this and fix it for ipf. Although the compiler can fix a
lot, it is recommended to create strict HTML files to avoid unpredicted
compiler output.


Some restrictions and limitations:

<TABLES> - IPF tables cannot contain images. When the HTML table
contains two columns the compiler transtales the table into a
definition list which is less strict as the IPF table. Hence,
HTML tables with two columns may contain images and other mark up
tags. The maximum column with in the compiled source is 40 characters.

<FONT> - Only the courier font can be set. Other fontnames are ignored.


Known problems:
Compiling large documents can sometime result in duplicate panel id's.
This problem was found when the HTML reference manual was compiled.

Jasper de Keijzer.
101322.3665@compuserve.com.
Also writer of DrawIt for OS/2. (See BMT-MICRO).