Xref: utzoo alt.hypertext:679 comp.text:7659 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mcnc!rti!dg-rtp!dg-rtp!brennan From: brennan@rtp.dg.com (Dave Brennan) Newsgroups: alt.hypertext,comp.text Subject: Re: Designing Online Documents Message-ID: Date: 27 Nov 90 23:09:08 GMT References: <5514@newton.praxis.co.uk> Sender: usenet@dg-rtp.dg.com (Usenet Administration) Organization: Data General, RTP, NC Lines: 29 In-Reply-To: joe [Joe Zitt]'s message of 17 Nov 90 17:32:12 GMT In article joe [Joe Zitt] writes: I've worked on a few projects involving text-hypertext conversion. Currently I'm working with a team (about 6 people) to take a large stack on man pages (394 of them) and convert them into a hypertext database to be read with KRS software. What type of problems have you run into on this project? I've been working on an X11/Motif hypertext help system, which will probably eventually have to display man pages (which I'd like to see). I haven't put a lot of thought into yet and would be interested in hearing from others. The SEE ALSO sections is an obvious place to look for cross references, but I've been wondering about how we can detect other items in text that are good cross reference candidates. In many cases the man page refers to include files or structures not included in the mans which would be useful to call up. I'm always browsing through /usr/include when I can't find enough information in the man pages. What will writers be doing with the clusters of articles? Enhancing their hypertext suitability? It seems that to make non-hypertext documents "good" hypertext documents some manual intervention will almost inevitably be involved. (Which is what I'm finding as I try to convert a printed manual to hypertext form.) |\ Dave Brennan | \____oo_ brennan@rtp.dg.com =========================================((__| /___> ...rti!dg-rtp!brennan User Interfaces, Data General | // daveb@rpitsmts.bitnet Research Triangle Park, NC |// Phone: (919) 248-6330