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From: rhys@cs.uq.oz.au (Rhys Weatherley)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms.programmer
Subject: Re: RTF description
Message-ID: <983@uqcspe.cs.uq.oz.au>
Date: 25 Apr 91 19:56:28 GMT
References: <1991Apr25.123140.17839@watserv1.waterloo.edu>
Sender: news@cs.uq.oz.au
Reply-To: rhys@cs.uq.oz.au
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In <1991Apr25.123140.17839@watserv1.waterloo.edu> tom@mims-iris.waterloo.edu (Tom Haapanen) writes:

>The following is a description of the RTF format (for Windows helpfiles)
>that I found on Compuserve.  I have uploaded it, along with the Xantippe
>hypertext authoring tool (which can export RTF) to cica as well.  Enjoy!
>[...]

Thanks for posting that Tom.  Now a little announcement.  Within the next 48
hours I will have the first version of a (free) RTF converter ready, called
the "Help Writer's Assistant" (HWA).  It takes plain ASCII files as input
that have special formatting commands in them, that look a little like TeX.
It writes out RTF suitable for use with the Help Compiler.  This is a "CFBT"
(Call For Beta-Testers :-) .  If you are interested in testing this tool, then
please contact me (soon), and I can send you a beta copy.  I hope to release
a full-blown version to the net sometime next week, either as a posting to
comp.windows.ms.programmer or by sending it to SIMTEL20 (or both).  The input
files look a little like the following:

	\topic{File Menu Commands}{filemenu}
	\keyword{File}
	\browse{mainmenu:003}

	The following commands appear on the file menu:

	\xref{New}{filemenunew}

	\xref{Open}{filemenuopen}

	\topic{Edit Menu Commands}{editmenu}
	\keyword{Edit}
	\browse{mainmenu:002}

	The following commands appear on the edit menu:

	\xref{Cut}{editmenucut}

	\xref{Paste}{editmenupaste}

	\topic{Open a file}{filemenuopen}
	\keyword{Open}
	\browse{filemenu:010}

	....

I think this format is infinitely more understandable and maintainable than
RTF itself, and also infinitely cheaper than buying Word.  You'll be able to
distribute any RTF files generated by my tool as far and wide as you please
with no mention needed of me (the "no-nonsense license" is very "forgiving").
You can also distribute my tool with your products (as is) for compiling
source code, etc if you wish.

At the moment, my tool cannot support all of the things that a full-blown
word-processor like Word can, but what I do have (and will have by the time
I send out beta copies) is a tool useful enough to generate most sorts of
help files.  If you want pretty pictures (other than simple bitmaps) and
fancy formats, then get a word-processor.  But usually having fancy help
data detracts from its usefulness anyway.

Cheers,

Rhys.

+=====================+==================================+
||  Rhys Weatherley   |  The University of Queensland,  ||
||  rhys@cs.uq.oz.au  |  Australia.  G'day!!            ||
+=====================+==================================+