PC Online 1997 February/PCO2_97.ISO/filesbbs/os2/khtepm14.arj/KENHTEPM.DOC

Text File | 1996-10-20 | 11.0 KB | 191 lines

(Note:  this file has been enhanced for EPM.  For best results, use Info-Zip to
unpack the zipfile, which will save the extended attributes, and use black type on a
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                                      kenHTepm

     Thanks for trying this EPM macro!

Overview:
    First of all, I want to acknowledge the work done by Larry Margolis and Eduardo
Areitio.  Their HTML macros (HTMLTAGS.E and HTMEPM98, respectively) contained
stunning code which I could never have written in a million years.  I used Larry's
URL-management code as a library routine in many areas (and also his drag&drop
routines); and Eduardo's code for generating tables, checkboxes, and radio buttons.
Thanks to both for their kind permission to use their source code!
    My goal with kenHTepm was to take the best features of each of those macros and
combine them; adding more functionality, a more logical menu layout, updating the
HTML tags to support the HTML3.2 (Wilbur) "standard", as well as providing
accommodations for the proposed "Cougar" enhancements.

New in this release (version 1.4):
     1. Changes to the "Table" function:
          a.  Now uses the vertical bar (|) instead of a comma for the initial
          separation of data items.  This means that data containing commas can now
          be entered (!).
          b.  New context-sensitive prompt for the location of header cells.  Can be:
          top row only, left column only, both, or none.
          c.  Added warnings if the data has not been line-marked.
     2. Inoperative menu items are now greyed out.
     3. Re-wrote "Connections" prompt messages as more general descriptions.

Features:
     1.  Easy table creation -- enter the data in a simple, straightforward manner
and let the macro do all the tedious work.  Header cells can be specified as:  top
row only, left column only, both, or none.
     2.  Quick & easy insertion of paragraph tags and list tags around imported text.
     3.  Full frames support.
     4.  Complete forms support, including all input methods.
     5.  Support for new NetScape3.0 tags:  multi-column, spacers, and
embedded LiveAudio, LiveVideo, Live3D, and Quicktime.
     6. Support for other NetScape tags:  "big", "small", "blinking", font colour,
font face, and basefont.
     7.  Context-sensitive prompts, including maintaining lists of frequently used
URL's, target names and customized user tags.
     8.  Java applet tags.
     9.  Full complement of HTML special characters, including accented characters,
math symbols, currency, etc.
     10.  "One-click" Internet connectivity for your FTP, Telnet, browser and comm
programs.
     11.  Menu access for external HTML utilities such as syntax-checking,
references, and removing HTML tags from a document.
     12.  Quick preview of the document in your favourite browser.

Features that aren't obvious:
    1. You can drag&drop an image file, a HTML document, or a WebEx URL item and the
appropriate location info will be inserted at the cursor, using relative links when
appropriate.
    2. The "Paragraph" menu item has an "auto-tags" feature.  If you've imported some
straight ASCII text into your HTML document, mark all the appropriate lines (using
line-marking) and select the "Paragraph" menu item.  Opening & closing paragraph tags
will automatically be inserted around each paragraph.  Paragraphs will be found if
they are separated by an empty line, and/or if they start with a blank space or a tab
character.
    3. The five "List" items (ordered, unordered, directory, menu, and definition)
also have "auto-tags" capabilities.  After line-marking the appropriate lines,
selecting one of the "List" menu items will bracket the group of lines with opening &
closing tags and insert either a list item tag or a definition list term tag at the
beginning of each line.
     4.  Pressing <Ctrl>+<Alt> and single-clicking mouse button 2 will bring up a
selection list for commonly used HTML tags.  This is especially handy for generating
tables, or paragraphs and lists from imported text, since the initial data must first
be line-marked, usually by dragging MB2 over the lines.

What doesn't work yet:
    1. "Divisions" on the "Separators" menu currently adds only the alignment option.
As/if more options are agreed to by the W3C standards committee, they will be added
here.  (Not all browsers support the ALIGN=CENTER tag.)
    2. "Object" under the "Links, objects" menu is inoperative, again pending more
definitive info from the W3C and more general implementation by browsers.  The same
is true for the "Button" input type in the "Forms" menu, and the "Fieldset" and
"Label" items in the "Form"s menu.
    3. Several entities under the "Special Characters" menu and its sub-menus
("trademark" and various spaces & dashes) are also inoperative because their
respective codes are proposals only and are subject to further review and could
change.  Not many (if any) browsers currently support 'em, anyway.
    (N.B.:  the symbols used for displaying the special characters in the menus vary
according to the codepage your system is using.  <sigh>  Codepage 850 displays most
of 'em, but misses a couple.  Codepage 437 (USA) gets those, but misses most of the
rest.)
    4. The "Span" and "Style" items (under the "Documents" menu) currently insert the
basic opening & closing tags.  As these elements become better defined (and
implemented by browsers), I'll add more functionality.

Getting Started
     Requirements:  You'll need the matching ETPM.EXE compiler for your version of
EPM, and the "base" *.E macros must be available to it at compile time.  I'm using
EPM6.03b, but I don't see why earlier versions shouldn't work.
    EPM6.03b is available on the Hobbes site (ftp://ftp-os2.nmsu.edu/os2/editors)
as several files named EPM*.ZIP.  The file EPMBBS.TXT is a packing list, and
describes the contents of the zip files.  The base *.E macros are in EPMMAC.ZIP.
    Configuration:  This is a three-step process:  adding your customizations to the
KENHTEPM.E file; compiling that file into a KENHTEPM.EX file; and linking KENHTEPM.EX
into your running copy of EPM.

     Customizing your copy
    If you're unfamiliar with the E macro language, there's plenty of info available
in the EPMUSERS.INF and EPMTECH.INF references.  For our purposes here, you need to
know:
    1. Putting a semi-colon in the first column of a line makes that line a comment
and it's ignored.  (This is a good way to customize parameters by adding your own
lines without losing the original lines.)
    2. Any literal string you want passed to the application (or to OS/2) must be
enclosed in quotes.

     There are some settings you will need to make to customize kenHTepm for your
system -- these are the "MY_*" constants near the beginning of the file:
    1. If you define a MY_HTML_ADDRESS constant, that info will be automatically
added at the end of new documents.  (See examples at the beginning of KENHTEPM.E.)
     2.  MY_TIMEZONE is used to append your time zone at the end of the "Last
updated" line, if you use that line in your HTML file.
     3.  WANT_HTML_MONOFONT if set to '1' will automatically use your default
monospaced font for HTML documents.
    4. MY_HTML_MARGINS allows you to set the default first column, margins, and new
paragraph firstline indentations.  (For consistent formatting, it's best to keep the
first column and firstline indent the same.)
    5. MY_HTML_TABS lets you set the default tab space.  Since kenHTepm uses 3 spaces
for its multi-line formatting, it's recommended you leave this set for '3'.
     6.  MY_HTML_STRIP defines the program and parameters (if any) to use to strip
out the HTML tags.  (kenHTepm contains code for using Don Hawkinson's excellent
UNH.EXE, and will automatically specify the target file & URL file names that that
program can generate.)
     7.  MY_HTML_CHECK does likewise for the WebLint syntax-checking program.  If
you don't have WebLint on your system, using something like:
          MY_HTML_CHECK='linkup.exe explore.exe -t 8 -q http://<location for validator>'
should work for accessing a validation service on the 'Net.
     8.  MY_COM_PROG takes the name (and parameters) of your favourite com program.
     9.  MY_TELNET does likewise for telnet.
    10.  MY_FTP ditto for your FTP program.  If you use FTPPM.EXE (recommended),
you don't need to add any additional parameters after the program name -- once you've
connected to the FTP site, your local directory will be automatically set to the
directory containing your HTML file and the transfer mode will be set to "binary".
Then you can simply drag&drop files from one window to the other (in FTPPM) to do the
transfer.
     11.  MY_BROWSER takes the name and parameters for your browser.
     12.  MY_COLOR_REF is the program you use for testing colour combinations, and
MY_HTML_REF is your reference app for HTML tags.  You can see how I've configured
mine for a couple of Windows apps.
     That's it!

     Compiling kenHTepm
     Re-compile kenHTepm.e (as "htmltags.ex" if you're already autoloading
a file by that name into EPM, or as "kenHTepm.ex" if you're going to link it in
manually.)  The syntax is
          ETPM <source drive\path\>kenHTepm.e <target drive\path\>kenHTepm.ex
Use the same directory the other EPM *.ex files are in as your target directory.

     Linking kenHTepm
     There are a few different ways to do it:
     1.  Bring up an EPM command line and enter:
          link kenHTepm
This will add the "kHTML" item to the main menu bar.
                                         or
     2.  If you're using a PROFILE.ERX, and want kenHTepm loaded when you start
EPM, add the following line to PROFILE.ERX (the quotes are necessary):
          'link kenHTepm.ex'
                                         or
     3.  If you've been re-compiling the main EPM macros to add your customizations,
add the following line to your MYSTUFF.E file (the quotes are necessary):
          'link kenHTepm.ex'

    If you want to remove the macro, at an EPM command line enter:
          unlink kenHTepm
That will remove the functionality of the macro and, in most cases, also remove the
"kHTML" item from the menu bar.

                             That's all there is to it --
                                       Enjoy!
                   Send any comments or suggestions to:
                                   Ken Arway
                               [e-mail]

                      DISCLAIMER:  I make  no claims, expressed
                      or implied,  as to  the fitness   of this
                      code or  its suitability  for any purpose
                      whatsoever.  I will not be liable for any
                      damages  of any  kind resulting  from the
                      use of this code by anybody  at all.  Use
                      of this  code is   entirely at   your own risk.