Xref: utzoo alt.hypertext:688 comp.text:7702 Path: utzoo!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!tivoli!mary From: mary@tivoli.UUCP (Mary Anthony) Newsgroups: alt.hypertext,comp.text Subject: Re: Designing Online Documents Message-ID: <226@tivoli.UUCP> Date: 4 Dec 90 22:44:18 GMT References: <5514@newton.praxis.co.uk> <47034@apple.Apple.COM> Reply-To: mary@tivoli.UUCP (Mary Anthony) Followup-To: alt.hypertext Organization: Tivoli Systems Inc., Austin, TX Lines: 24 rticle joe [Joe Zitt] writes: >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. Is it really necessary to include a SEE ALSO section in a hypertext document? By its very nature isn't a link a SEE ALSO reference? Since hypertext documents generally exist in windowed environments, the amount of document space is limited. Wouldn't you want to limit the amount of space taken up in the document window by unnecessary headings? I agree, it is a problem when references are made in a hypertext document to include files that do not exist within the document. However, as you demonstrated, it is always possible for the user to view the file in another window in his environment. Since include files change often from release to release there may be good reason not to document them in detail. Wouldn't it be nice if writers could link to an include file itself. The link would then pull up the appropriate (and one would hope most recent) include file rather than a documentation node. Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com