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35-Internet.zip
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faq2html.zip
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readme.txt
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1995-07-21
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FAQ2HTML Version 1.0
An OS/2 FAQ to HTML conversion utility
This utility will convert a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document in
standard format into a very nice HTML document for use on World Wide Web.
Non-standard format FAQs and other ASCII documents can be converted as
well but with less detailed control over the results.
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* DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY, COPYRIGHT NOTICE, AND OTHER SMALL PRINT
This program is provided "as is" without warranties, express or implied. Any
risk arising from the use or performance of this program remains with the
user. In no event shall Network Cybernetics Corporation be liable for any
damages arising from the use or inability to use this software.
While we are fairly certain that all the bits which make up this program
are either 1's or 0's, we make no guarantees that they are in the correct
order.
This software is Copyright (C) 1995 by Network Cybernetics Corporation, all
rights reserved.
This software is not in the public domain. It may be distributed for free
over computer networks such as The Internet and bulletin board systems. It
may be sold for profit or included as part of a commercial product without
permission from Network Cybernetics Corporation. This program may be
included in CD-ROM or other file collections provided that the publisher
agrees to provide at least one copy of the collection to Network Cybernetics
Corporation at no charge. Inclusion of this file in CD-ROM or other file
collections represents agreement to these terms. If this file is distributed
in any form, all files (including this readme.txt file) from the original
archive must be included with the distribution.
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* SO WHAT IS THIS THING?
I maintain a Frequently Asked Questions list that is updated and posted to a
Usenet newsgroup at regular intervals. Our company now has a Web site and I
have been making my FAQ available via Web. The trouble is that it takes a
lot of time to convert an ASCII document to a nice-looking HTML document if
it is done by hand. After having to do this manually for several months, I
decided to look for a program that could do the conversion automatically.
While I found many references to such programs or to people who were working
on them, I never could actually get my hands on one. It seemed like such a
simple idea that I decided to build my own. After a couple of days this is
what I came up with. It's very basic but does the job. If you'd like to
see an example of what the output looks like, here is the URL of the FAQ
that I process regularly with it:
http://www.ncc.com/ncc/rcfaq.html
With a little tweaking, this program can convert most any ASCII document,
even those that are not in the minimal-digest-format used for FAQ files.
This program does a variety of things to assist in creating an HTML version
of your document:
1. URLs (http://, ftp://, etc) can be converted to working links
2. email addresses can be converted to MAILTO links
3. You can select to translate character strings into HTML code (i.e., if
you have items in your document that are delimited by "*" characters
used as bullets, the program can convert those into bullet icons.
4. If your document follows the minimal-digest-format you can provide
specific pieces of HTML code to wrap various sections of the document
(i.e., the header should be big characters, the table of contents should
be preformatted text, etc.)
5. FAQs in minimal-digest-format can have horizontal rules or any other
HTML code you provide as section dividers between topics.
6. You can choose to include or leave out any of the minimal-digest-format
sections such as the Usenet headers or the digest trailer.
7. The items in the table of contents will be hypertext linked to the
associated subject lines in the FAQ (again, this works only if your FAQ
is in standard format!).
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* HOW TO MAKE IT GO
FAQ2HTML is a 32bit command line, text mode, OS/2 program. To run it you
need to specify at least one and possibly two command line options. It may
be invoked as follows:
FAQ2HTML <faqname> <configuration-file-name>
You must include the FAQ name but the configuration file name is optional.
If you do not include it, FAQ2HTML.CFG is loaded and used as the default
configuration file. If you maintain only one FAQ, the best plan is to
set up the default configuration file the way you want it. If you will
be maintaining several FAQs, you will need to create a configuration file
for each of them and invoke FAQ2HTML with the appropriate file names.
The first and easiest way to invoke the program is by typing:
FAQ2HTML faqname.txt
The resulting HTML filename will be faqname.html.
This will cause the program to process an ASCII text FAQ file with whatever
name you specify. For example if your FAQ file is called TRIFFID.FAQ then
you would type "FAQ2HTML TRIFFID.FAQ". When the program is invoked in this
manner, it will load and use the default configuration file which is called
"FAQ2HTML.CFG".
The second method should be used if you maintain multiple FAQs. Let's
suppose that you maintain the "Zippy The Pinhead FAQ" and the "Far Side
FAQ". For the Zippy FAQ, your faq filename is ZIPPY.FAQ and you have
created a configuration file called ZIPPY.CFG (which contains special
Zippy icons, etc.). For the Far Side FAQ, your filename is FARSIDE.FAQ
and your configuration file is FARSIDE.CFG. To convert the Zippy FAQ
to HTML format you would type:
FAQ2HTML ZIPPY.FAQ ZIPPY.CFG
This will result in a file called ZIPPY.HTML.
To convert the Far Side FAQ you would type (you guessed it):
FAQ2HTML FARSIDE.FAQ FARSIDE.CFG
This will result in a file called FARSIDE.HTML.
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* OK, IT MAKES SENSE SO FAR BUT WHAT'S THE CONFIGURATION FILE FOR?
The configuration file contains information about your FAQ file that will
assist the FAQ2HTML program in making the coversion to HTML look the way
you want it to. There are few items that must be edited in the config file
before you will be able to run the program such as the name of your FAQ and
the various flags that indicate whether your FAQ file is in minimal digest
format or not. There are also many additional items in the configuration
that you may edit to change the look of the finished HTML file such as
adding icons to be used as bullets and rules within the final document.
The default configuration file that comes with the program contains quite
a bit of documentation in the form of comments and, hopefully, this will be
all the information you need to build a custom configuration file for your
FAQ. By experimenting with the configuration you produce a wide range of
HTML files.
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* HOW TO CONTACT THE AUTHOR
If you have questions, comments, suggestions, flames, etc. about this
program, send them to: srainwater@ncc.com. Keep in mind that this is
unsupported software - I make no promises that I will fix bugs, add
features, or even have time to answer email. I do plan to release an
improved version of this program based on user feedback if time allows.
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* BLATANT COMMERCIAL MESSAGE
Since this program is being released as freeware rather than shareware, we
aren't asking for any donations or fees to use it. However, if you really
like the program or want to do something in return, how about buying one
of our products? NCC is a CD-ROM publisher and, at the time of releasing
this software, we have 4 shipping titles with 3 more on the way. Our CDs
are primarily collections of software on various topics such as Astronomy,
Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, etc. Our AI CD-ROM has received
wonderful reviews (including a nice mention in Jerry Pournelle's column).
Our SL9:Impact '94 CD-ROM was recently selected by Sky & Telescope as the
"most comprehensive" collection of SL9/Jupiter impact images and data
around. Our other CD-ROM have received equally impressive praise. You
can find out more by sending us email at info@ncc.com or visiting our web
site at: http://www.ncc.com/ncc/
If you do buy a CD-ROM after reading this, be sure to send in the
registration file for you disc and mention this program so NCC will no
that it's worthwhile to spend time on the development and maintanence of
this and other free software.
Thanks!
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* FINAL NOTES
The following documents describe the various standards for creating FAQs
that have been developed by the Internet community. If you currently
maintain a FAQ or are in the process of creating one, you should make
every attempt to follow these guidelines so that your FAQ will be easily
accessible to the maximum number of people and so that it can be handled
by existing software. Following these guidelines will give you a lot of
benefits besides just compatibility with programs like FAQ2HTML. Many
newsreaders are equipped to handle digest format messages (with features
such as pressing a key to move between sections of the FAQ). Many FAQ
repositories such as the ohio-state site automatically convert FAQ in
this format for easy viewing by Web browsers. Other programs on the
net can also take advantage of this FAQ format.
RFC 1153 (Digest Format):
http://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1153.txt
The Suggested Minimal Digest Format for FAQs:
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/faqs/minimal-digest-format
*.answers submission guidelines can be obtained from:
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/news-answers/guidelines