NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #18/NN_1992_18.iso/spool/alt/hypertex/696

Internet Message Format | 1992-08-19 | 3.3 KB

Xref: sparky alt.hypertext:696 comp.os.msdos.misc:4859
Newsgroups: alt.hypertext,comp.os.msdos.misc
Path: sparky!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!agate!linus!alliant!mydual!olson
From: [e-mail] (Kirtland H. Olson)
Subject: Re: Create MS-DOS CD-ROM hypertext product?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: The Harvard Group, 01451-0667
References: <[e-mail]>
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1992 18:08:03 GMT
Lines: 56


MaxThink products will definitely do what you describe--in fact a
big-six accounting firm uses them to produce a hypertext reference on
CD-ROM for it's internal use.

Limits on graphics derive from the PC, not the program.  You must
provide the graphics in multiple formats to accommodate the various
display options that you want to support.  All PC's support character
graphics, but once you get to Hercules (HGC or MGP) cards, CGA, MCGA,
EGA, VGA, and Super VGA you need a separate file for each kind of
display.

I'm not familiar with all the graphics conversion programs available,
but it may not be possible to do all the variants by file
conversion--someone else may speak to that issue.

Of course you could call a file viewer to show a .GIF, but then you
can't link out of the graphic--at least I've not found a way. When
HyPlus shows the graphic, you can jump *from* the graphic to other files.

MaxThink products don't provide overlay capability, so any screen with
embedded graphics has to be a graphic screen.  You can have text on it,
but you cannot edit the words with a text editor.  Use a screen painting
program with text capabilities instead.  I've used PAINT.COM from the PC
Magazine utilities to add highlights to captured screens.  I've used two
kinds of screen capture programs: one reads text from a screen and types
it into another application, the second creates a 4000-Byte
"BLOAD-Format" screen which has attributes as well as text.

I haven't done any .PCX images yet, but be aware that a 720x348 Hercules
screen displays a 2.4-inch by 1.16-inch original as a full screen when
you use 300 dot-per-inch scanning.  Originals and screen images are
about the same size when you use 75 dot-per-inch scanning (Screens are
mostly 72 dpi.)

You should not need a windows product for your project, but if you
decide to go that way check out Doc-To-Help which will compile your work
to run with the built-in help engine of windows.  That's a WexTech
product that I posted about a few days ago.

Finally, think about the organization very carefully.  MaxThink products
do not have a sense of forward and backward as Hypercard has in a stack.
You can only choose next and go previous--that's *not* the same thing. Also,
Hypercard keeps separate sequences and you can switch among them.
MaxThink products do not do this automatically.  You can build an
equivalent, but it requires "quasi-duplicate screens" to keep the
threads from tangling.

I've developed some very nice examples of functions in HyPlus--live
tables of contents, active tables, jumps to examples with multiple
aspects, and step-by-step examples using successive screens.  The issues
of writing for hypertext, screen layout, and organization have been
really instructive--it puts much more of the publication under the
direct control of the author.
--
Kirtland H. Olson                     [e-mail]