InfoMagic Source Code 1993 July/THE_SOURCE_CODE_CD_ROM.iso/languages/elisp/packages/hyperbole/README

Text File | 1991-12-16 | 14.9 KB | 385 lines

#
# FILE:        README
# SUMMARY:      Intro information on Hyperbole.
#
# AUTHOR:       Bob Weiner
# ORG:          Brown U.
#
# ORIG-DATE:    19-Oct-91 at 03:27:47
# LAST-MOD:     13-Dec-91 at 15:44:09 by Bob Weiner

The author's work on this project has been sponsored by Motorola Inc.
under the Distinguished Student-Employee program.

We hope you enjoy using and developing with Hyperbole.  Suggestions and bug
reports are welcome, as described later in this document.


           Outline
================================
* Beta Tester Quotes
* What is Hyperbole?
* How to Obtain
* Installation / Configuration
* Quick Reference
* Why was Hyperbole developed?
* Mail Lists
* Copyright
================================


* Beta Tester Quotes

 "In general, Hyperbole is an embeddable, highly extensible hypertext
  tool.  As such, I find it very useful. As it stands now, Hyperbole is
  particularly helpful for organizing ill-structured or loosely coupled
  information, in part because there are few tools geared for this purpose.
  Hyperbole also possesses a lot of potentials in supporting a wider
  spectrum of structuredness, ranging from unstructured to highly
  structured environments, as well as structural changes over time.

  Major Uses:

  * Menu interface to our own Epoch-based collaborative support environment
    called CoReView: This interface brings together all top-level user
    commands into a single partitioned screen, and allows the end user to
    interact with the system using simple mouse-clicking instead of the
    meta-x key.

  * Gateway to internet resources: this includes links to major Internet
    archive sites of various types of information. Links are made at both
    directory and file levels.

  * Alternative directory organizer: The hierarchical nature of the Unix
    file system sometimes makes it difficult to find things quickly and
    easily using directory navigational tools such as dired. Hyperbole
    enables me to create various "profile" views of my directory tree, with
    entries in these views referring to files anywhere in the hierarchy.

  * Organizing and viewing online documentation: using Hyperbole along with
    Hyper-man and Info makes it truly easy to look up online documentation.

  * Other desktop organization tasks: including links to various mail
    folders, saved newsgroup conversation threads, online note-taker,
    emacs-command invocations, etc."

                        -- Dadong Wan

-------

 "Hyperbole is the first hyper-link system I've run across that is
  actually part of the environment I use regularly, namely Emacs. The
  complete flexibility of the links is both impressive and expected -- the
  idea of making the link itself programmable is clever, and given that one
  assumes the full power of emacs.  Being able to send email with buttons
  in it is a very powerful capability.  Using ange-ftp mode, one can make
  file references "across the world" as easily as normal file references."

                        -- Mark Eichin

-------

 "The Hyperbole system provides a nice interface to exploring corners of
  Unix that I didn't know existed before."

                    -- Craig Smith

-------


* What is Hyperbole?

Hyperbole is an open, efficient hypertext system that can be used for
everyday work on any UNIX platform supported by GNU Emacs.  Hyperbole
consists of three parts:

   1.  an interactive hypertext management interface which anyone can use;

   2.  a set of programming library classes for system developers who
       want to integrate Hyperbole with another user interface or as a
       back-end to a distinct system.  (All of Hyperbole is written in
       Lisp for ease of modification.  Although Hyperbole is a
       prototype, it has been engineered for real-world usage and is
       well structured.)

   3.  A set of hyper-button-action types that provides core hypertext
       and other behaviors.  Users can make simple changes to button
       types and those familiar with Emacs Lisp can quickly prototype
       and deliver new types.

A Hyperbole user works with hypertext buttons; he may create, modify,
move or delete buttons.  Each button performs a specific action, such as
link to a file or execute a UNIX shell command.

Presently, there are two distinct categories of Hyperbole buttons:
explicit buttons (the ones that Hyperbole creates) and implicit buttons
(buttons created and managed by other programs or embedded within the
structure of a document and recognized contextually by Hyperbole).
Explicit Hyperbole buttons may be embedded within any type of text file.

Hyperbole buttons may be clicked upon with a mouse to activate them or
to describe their actions.  Thus, a user can always check how a button
will act before activating it.  Buttons may also be activated from a
keyboard.  (In fact, all Hyperbole operations, including menu usage, may
be performed from any standard character terminal interface, so one need
not be anchored to a workstation all day).

Hyperbole does not enforce any particular hypertext or information
management model, but instead allows you to organize your information in
large or small chunks as you see fit.  Some of its most important
features include:

    Buttons may link to information or may execute procedures, such as
    starting or communicating with external programs;

    Buttons may be embedded within electronic mail messages;

    Other hypertext and information retrieval systems may be
    encapsulated under a Hyperbole user interface (a number of samples
    are provided).

Typical Hyperbole applications include:

    personal information management
       Overlapping link paths provide a variety of views into an
       information space.

       A search facility locates buttons in context and permits quick
       selection.

    documentation browsing
       Embed cross-references in your favorite documentation format.

       Add a point-and-click interface to existing documentation.

       Link code and design documents.  Jump to the definition of an
       identifier from its use within code or its reference within
       documentation.

    help/training systems
       Create tutorials with embedded buttons that show students how
       things work while explaining the concepts, e.g. an introduction
       to UNIX commands.  This technique can be much more effective than
       descriptions alone.

    archive managers
       Supplement programs that manage archives from incoming
       information streams by having them add topic-based buttons that
       link to the archive holdings.  Users can then search and create
       their own links to archive entries.


* How to Obtain

Hyperbole is available across the Internet via anonymous ftp.  Do not send
requests to have it mailed to you since it won't be.  Instead have another
party who has Internet access obtain it for the both of you.

A server which sends the Hyperbole distribution in response to mail
requests may be put into service sometime in the first quarter of 1992.
The Free Software Foundation has expressed interest in distributing
Hyperbole as a separate add-on to GNU Emacs, once Hyperbole reaches a
stable point of maturation, so you may eventually be able to get it from
them.  Here is how to obtain it from the Brown softre archive:

Move to a directory below which you want the 'hyperbole' directory to
be created.  Unpacking the Hyperbole archive will create this
directory and place all of the files below it.

   cd <LOCAL-LISP-DIR>

Ftp to wilma.cs.brown.edu  (Internet Host ID = 128.148.31.66):

   prompt> ftp wilma.cs.brown.edu

Login as 'anonymous' with your own <user-id>@<site-name> as a password.

   Name (wilma.cs.brown.edu:rsw): anonymous
   331 Guest login ok, send EMAIL address (e.g. [e-mail]) as password.
   Password:
   230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.

Move to the Hyperbole directory:

   ftp> cd pub/hyperbole

Set your transfer mode to binary:

   ftp> bin
   200 Type set to I.

Turn off prompting:

   ftp> prompt
   Interactive mode off.

Either choose from the files with a 'dir' command or retrieve them all
(the individual files are also included in the tar archive):

   ftp> mget *

Close the ftp connection:

   ftp> quit
   221 Goodbye.

Unpack the *tar.Z archive:

   uncompress *tar.Z; tar xvf *tar


* Installation / Configuration

The Hyperbole Manual is included in three forms:
    "hypb.info"       - online version
     hypb.ps          - Postscript form
    "hypb.texinfo"    - source form

If you have just retrieved Hyperbole, see "hsite-ex.el" for installation
and setup instructions.  If Hyperbole has already been installed for
use at your site, you can manually invoke it from within GNU Emacs or Epoch by
loading the "hsite.el" code library file:  {M-x load-lib RTN hsite RTN}.  See
the section on 'Initializing' in the Hyperbole Manual for information on how to
set up for permanent Hyperbole use.

To add a pointer to the Info version of the Hyperbole manual within your Info
directory file, add the following two lines (the '*' should be in the first
column) to the menu within that file, substituting for <HYP-DIR>:

    * Hyperbole: (<HYP-DIR>/hypb.info).
        GNU Emacs-based extensible hypertext management system.

When used with a mouse, Hyperbole uses your middle and right mouse buttons by
default.  The bindings are set in "hmouse-key.el".  What the mouse
buttons do is set in the 'smart-key-alist' variable in "hui-mouse.el"
and is summarized in "hmouse-doc".


* Quick Reference

"MANIFEST" summarizes most of the files in the distribution.

See "DEMO" for a demonstration of standard Hyperbole button
capabilities.

Naming conventions:
  All Hyperbole-specific code files begin with an 'h'.
  Hyperbole user-interface files begin with 'hui-' or 'hmous'.
  Files that define implicit button types begin with 'hib'.
  Encapsulations of foreign systems begin with 'hsys-'.

Most of the standard Emacs user interface for Hyperbole is located in
"hui.el".  Most of the Hyperbole application programming interface can be
found in "hbut.el".  "hbdata.el" encapsulates the button attribute storage
handling presently implemented by Hyperbole.  "hmail.el" provides a basic
abstract interface for folding mail readers other than Rmail into Hyperbole.


* Why was Hyperbole developed?

The present version of Hyperbole has been designed to aid in research
aimed at personalizing information production/retrieval environments
(PIEs).   Hyperbole is a backend manager to be used in prototyping an
initial PIE.

An examination of many hypertext environments as background research did
not turn up any that seemed suitable for the research envisioned, mainly
due to the lack of rich, portable programmer and user environments.  We also
tired of trying to manage our own distributed information pools with standard
UNIX tools.  And so Hyperbole was conceived and raved about until it
got its name.


* Mail Lists

There are several Hyperbole-related mail addresses.  Learn what each is
for before you contemplate mailing to any of them.


[e-mail]

   ALL mail concerning administration of the Hyperbole mailing lists
   should be sent here.  That includes addition, change, or deletion
   requests.  Don't EVER consider sending such a request to a Hyperbole
   mail list or people will think you can't read.  ONLY FULLY
   DOMAIN-BASED ADDRESSES WILL BE ACCEPTED (no UUCP '!' characters nor
   .UUCP pseudo-domain).  If you don't have such an address by now, you
   should get one.  Anyone else who wants to handle these other
   addresses is free to forward the contents of the lists to them.

   Use the following formats on your subject line to execute requests,
   where you substitute your own values for the <> delimited items.

   Subject: Add <user>@<domain> to <mail-list-name-without-domain>.
   Subject: Remove <user>@<domain> from <mail-list-name-without-domain>.
   Subject: Change <user>@<domain> to <newuser>@<newdomain> in <mail-list-name-without-domain>.

   For example:
     Subject: Add [e-mail] to hyperbole.


[e-mail]

   Mail list for discussion of all Hyperbole issues.  Bug reports and
   suggestions may also be sent here.

   Always use your Subject and/or Summary: lines to state the position
   that your message takes on the topic that it addresses, e.g. send
   "Subject: Basic bug in top-level Hyperbole menu." rather than
   "Subject: Hyperbole bug".  Statements end with periods, questions
   with question marks (typically), and high energy, high impact
   declarations with exclamation points.  This simple rule makes all
   e-mail communication much easier for recipients to handle
   appropriately.

   If you ask a question, your subject line should include the word
   'question' or 'query' or should end with a '?', e.g. "Subject: How
   can man page SEE ALSOs be made implicit buttons?"  A "Subject: Re:
   How can ..." then indicates an answer to the question.  Question
   messages should normally include your Hyperbole and Emacs version
   numbers and clearly explain your problem and surrounding issues.
   Otherwise, you will simply waste the time of those who may want to
   help you.  (Your top-level Hyperbole menu shows its version number
   and {M-x emacs-version RTN} gives the other.)

   If you ask questions, you should consider adding to the discussion by
   telling people the kinds of work you are doing or contemplating doing
   with Hyperbole.  In this way, the list will not be overwhelmed by
   messages that ask for but provide no information.

   We will not be archiving this list.  If someone wants to do so, just
   set it up and then mail to the list to explain how people can access it.


[e-mail]

   Those who don't want to participate in the discussion but want to
   hear about bug fixes and new releases of Hyperbole should subscribe
   to this list.  Anyone on the 'hyperbole' list is automatically on
   this one too, so there is no need to subscribe to this one in that
   case.  This list is for official fixes and announcements so don't send
   your own fixes here.  Send them to 'hyperbole' instead.


* Copyright

The following copyright applies to the Hyperbole system as a whole.
Each file also bears its own copyright, e.g. the files based upon GNU
copyrighted code bear the same copyright as GNU Emacs.

Copyright (C) 1991, Brown University, Providence, RI

Permission to use, modify and redistribute this software and its
documentation for any purpose other than its incorporation into a
commercial product is hereby granted without fee.  A distribution fee
may be charged with any redistribution.  Any distribution requires
that the above copyright notice appear in all copies, that both that
copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting
documentation, and that neither the name of Brown University nor the
author's name be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to
distribution of the software without specific, written prior permission.

Brown University makes no representations about the suitability of this
software for any purpose.  It is provided "as is" without express or
implied warranty.