80 lines
2.9 KiB
HTML
80 lines
2.9 KiB
HTML
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<html>
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<head>
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<title> JOE 2.9.7pre3 -> Help system </title>
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</head>
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<body bgcolor="#83CCF4">
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<center><h2> JOE:: Help system </h2></center>
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<table>
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<tr>
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<td> Name: </td>
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<td> Help system </td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td> Files: </td>
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<td> help.c, help.h </td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td> Since: </td>
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<td> 2.9.7pre1 </td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td> Main authors: </td>
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<td> Joseph Allen <br> Marek 'marx' Grac <a href="mailto:xgrac@fi.muni.cz"><xgrac@fi.muni.cz></a> </td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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<p>
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Differences between this and previous version should be hidden
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to users. Main changes were done in design of source code. I
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will try to explain <i>what it is</i> and <i>why it is done this
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way</i>? Main goal was to clean and minimalize source code,
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remove several global variables, move everything concerned with
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help to these files.
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</p>
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<p>
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The help system is based on bi-directional list of help screens.
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Each help screen has defined two variables, help text (<i>char
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*hlptxt</i>) and number of lines of help text (<i>int
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hlplns</i>). Since this version the help file can/should be
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separated from *rc files. Advantage of this model is that you
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can set help to other languages. Usage of standard method
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(gettext) will be very difficult here, because help has constant
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width which can't be overcrossed. This method has also no
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problem with having several help files in each language (for
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joe, jmacs, ...). Problematics of setting proper help file will
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be solved in <i>main.c</i> not here.
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</p>
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<h3> How to create a help file </h3>
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<p>
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Help file consist of prologue, body and epilogue for each of the
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screens. Each help screen must begin with <i>{%name</i> where
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<i>%name</i> is only symbolic name of this screen and is not
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used in program. The body of help screen contains text which
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will be showed on the user screen and tags which takes care of
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special information (bold, flash, ...). There is list of the
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tags with theirs functions:
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<ul>
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<li> <b>\i</b> to turn on/off inverse video </li>
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<li> <b>\u</b> to turn on/off underline </li>
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<li> <b>\b</b> to turn on/off bold </li>
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<li> <b>\l</b> to turn on/off italic </li>
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<li> <b>\d</b> to turn on/off dim </li>
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<li> <b>\f</b> to turn on/off flash </li>
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</ul>
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These tags are inserted into help screen text, but they are not
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visible in the help screen (visible are only their effects, but this
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is their purpose <b>:)</b>)
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</p>
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<p>
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Some hints how to write a new help screen. Standard help screens have
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80 characters per line (including borders) so they are visible on text
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console. Sequences of keys are usually written as <i>^KD</i> where
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<i>^</i> means CTRL + next character <i>K</i> and then key named <i>D</i>
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should be pressed.
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</p>
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<hr>
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<p>
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Any comments, ideas, questions send to me at <a href="mailto:xgrac@fi.muni.cz">xgrac@fi.muni.cz</a>
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</p>
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</body>
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</html>
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