Date: Sat, 16 Apr 94 20:47:07 JST
From: Stephen Turnbull <turnbull AT shako DOT sk DOT tsukuba DOT ac DOT jp>
To: S DOT Herbert AT sheffield DOT ac DOT uk
Cc: leisner AT sdsp DOT mc DOT xerox DOT com, djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu
Subject: Docs for DJGPP v1.11 

*****  The following is sort of relevant to DJGPP, followups  *****
*****  to djgpp, flames to me:                                *****

Stuart quotes Marty as follows:

   > Info is far superior to man, it would be more useful to
   > spend time learning info than writing a info->man converter
   > (which looses all the hypertext information).

and replies:

   Says who?  :-)

And I reply:

SEZ ME!!
    Seriously, as Stuart points out at great length, we're here
(discussing Info, that is) because we want to spread the Word, er, GCC
compiler, to the unwashed masses, er, DOS users.  If somebody has a
good way to make it easier for them to use FSF's/DJ's/our favorite
software, great!  Many of them will get FSF stuff that Stuart hasn't
man-ized and want to learn info, or they'll use [OD]?Emacs and want
the on-line help.  And as Stuart points out with his own system, there
can be technical details involved.
    Me, I'll probably go Linux or (Free|Net)BSD in the near future,
keeping DOS/DVX/Windows around only to provide pro bono support to my
neighbors and test ports of any software I write.  But I still love
and will help support DJGPP, just because it's a *good thing*.  And
that includes making life as easy as possible for the clueless, er,
newbies from the DOS/Windows world.  (Just as long as they learn the
syntax of the listserv unsubscribe command. Otherwise, NUKE 'EM!  :-)

One correction:

Stuart wrote:

   Why not just convert info->WinHelp?  I'm told that the replacement for
   WinHelp will be backwards compatible.  Personally, Stephen's idea of
   porting to html interests me a lot more (and is also a lot less grief.
   Writing Word macros to output .texinfo from user input is one thing, but
   I'm not writing an info->RTF convertor!) and I *do* need a html browser
   for DOS ... :)

It wasn't my idea, it was, OMiGod, yes, I first saw it in a post from
Stuart!!  As for html browsers for DOS, DESQview/X is a not
inconsequential, but not prohibitive, $150 and then you can use X
Mosaic (free by FTP from QDeck.COM) and get real preemptive
multitasking and Windoze support (not enhanced mode, sorry, Mathemagica
users).

*****  The following is not directly relevent to DJGPP, followups  *****
*****  or flames to me (unless you know of a better forum):        *****

And a comment: Windoze help may be more hypertext than Info is, but I
personally find Info a lot more useful.  This is most likely because
the Windoze help I've used presumes that the user really doesn't know
much about what's going on.  So when I use some recondite command to
get Windwoze (typo, but I like it, I like it!) wedged, the help
doesn't help.  I've never had that problem with Info.  The same
comment goes for the 4DOS help system, which is Info with colorized
links, vs. Windoze help.
    I think the basic issue is that Info writers presume that people
reading Info will generally want to find the topic quickly, then read
the whole thing (my habit), whereas DOS/Windoze help writers assume
that people are newbies and will therefore end up reading several
wildly disparate branches of the tree, therefore lots of links.  I'll
take Info's writing style because it makes me more productive, but I
can see that lots and lots (probably the great majority) will prefer
the Windoze style.  Question: is it really possible to write a help
facility that satisfies both (or several other kinds as well) of
readers?  Eg, I rather like the style used in Ellis and Stroustrup's
C++ Annotated Reference Manual.  (Reference + embedded commentary +
extra commentary sections.)
    --Steve