Short description of Manual 1.00
            ================================

                  (by Thomas Egeter)




Copyright and Disclaimer
------------------------

    Copyright (c) 1994, Thomas Egeter, All Rights Reserved

    You may freely use and distribute this program under the following
    conditions:

    1) No modifications are made into the program or this documentation
       However, you are allowed to compress all the files into an archive
       for distribution.

    2) All the files are spread together.

    3) No money (other than nominal copying fees) is charged for its
       distribution.

    4) Everybody using this Manual program (even occasionally) is liable
       to send a postcard to the author's address (see below).

    THIS PROGRAM IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER
    EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. THE AUTHOR WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES,
    DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL, RESULTING FROM THE USE
    OF THE PROGRAM. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE USE OF THIS PROGRAM IS ASSUMED
    BY THE USER.


Introduction
------------

    Manual is a tool which helps you to find the manuals of all those programs
    which have gathered on your harddisk in course of time. The doc files
    should be placed in a few subdirectories (or else you have to type
    hundreds of paths in Manual's ToolTypes).
    Manual can work in three modes:
        - CLI mode
            Manual is started from the (you guess it ? Greaat :-) CLI. The
            programnames are passed to Manual as parameters on the command-
            line.
        - Workbench mode
            the programnames are passed with multiselection. Click on
            Manual's icon, press and hold the shift-button and doubleclick
            on a program's icon.
        - AppIcon mode
            doubleclick Manual's icon. An appicon appears. Drop any program-
            icon on this appicon and Manual will search for the right manual.
    Search paths, display programs and other settings are read from Manual's
    icon file (even in CLI mode!). Manual always must have an icon. Else
    Manual uses default settings which may be useless to you.


Getting started
---------------

    1) from the CLI

        a)  Manual program1 program2 program3 ... programN
            searches for the doc-files for program1, program2 up to programN
            and displays them when found.

        b)  Manual -appicon
            puts an appicon on the Workbench. To detach from the initial CLI
            you have to use:
            Manual >NIL: <NIL: -appicon

    2) from Workbench

        a)  Doubleclick
            doubleclicking on Manual's icon puts an appicon on the workbench.
            To look for a program documentation just drop the program's icon
            on Manual's appicon.

        b)  Multiselect
            clicking on Manual's icon, pressing the shift-key and, while
            pressing, clicking on other programs' icons and doubleclicking
            on the last icon will view the manuals of these programs.

    The search-pathes for the manuals is looked up in Manual's icon. If there
    isn't the right ToolType a default path will be used.


ToolTypes
---------

    1)  PFAD#=path,suffix,display_program

        #       means a number.
                Use numbers starting from 1 up to the number of paths you
                want to use. Manual looks first for PFAD1 then for PFAD2
                and so on until such a ToolType doesn't exist. If e.g.
                PFAD3 does _not_ exist but PFAD4 does, then PFAD4 will
                never be recognised.                

        path    the path which will be used for searching the manuals.
                Must be terminated by ':' or '/'.
                Example:    Docs:Guides/

        suffix  should be appended to the program's name to get the
                name of the program's manual.
                Example:    the suffix is '.guide'; is the program's
                            name 'MuchMore' then a manual named
                            'MuchMore.guide' will be searched.

        display_program   path and name of the program which should be
                used to display the manual.
                Example:    SYS:Utilities/AmigaGuide

        Path, suffix and display_program have to be separated by commas.

        Full example:
                  PFAD1=Docs:,.doc,SYS:Utilities/More
                  PFAD2=Docs:Guides/,.guide,SYS:Utilities/AmigaGuide
                  PFAD3=Docs:DVI/,.dvi,TeX:ShowDVI

        Default:  PFAD1=Docs:,.doc,SYS:Utilities/More

    2)  APPICON_X   the horizontal position of Manual's appicon.
                    Example:    APPICON_X=100

    3)  APPICON_Y   the vertical position of Manual's appicon.
                    Example:    APPICON_Y=22

    4)  APPNAME     the name which appears under the appicon.
                    Example:    APPNAME=man
                    Default:    the name with which Manual was started

    5)  APPICON     APPICON=Default
                        Manual's icon will be used as appicon.
                    APPICON=Intern
                        an internal icon (made by Volker Milsch) will be used
                        as Manual's appicon.
                    APPICON=Extern
                        any icon you wish can be used as Manual's appicon. You
                        have to use the ToolType 'ICONFILE' to tell Manual
                        which icon you want to use.

    6)  ICONFILE    path and name of an icon (without '.info'). Gets used as
                    appicon if the ToolType 'APPICON=Extern' is set.
                    Example:    ICONFILE=RAM:Disk

    7)  MELDUNG     tells Manual wether to show a message or not when a
                    program's manual can't be found.
                    Examples:   MELDUNG=Aus     -> no message
                                MELDUNG=Ein     -> message allowed
                    Default:    MELDUNG=Ein

    8)  REQUESTER   tells Manual wether system requesters like 'Please insert
                    volume XXX ...' should appear or not.
                    Examples:   REQUESTER=Aus   -> no system requesters
                                REQUESTER=Ein   -> system requesters allowed
                    Default:    Requester=Ein

    9)  DONOTWAIT   use this if you put Manual in your WBStartup-drawer.
                    It tells Workbench not to wait until Manual has finished.


How does Manual search for docs ?
---------------------------------

    Manual looks at PFAD1-ToolType, appends the suffix to the name of the
    program and searches in the given path for a file with this name. If
    found it will be displayed using the given display program. If not
    found Manual will take the next path, PFAD2, ... and so on.
    Warning: If there are more manuals for one program (e.g. MuchMore.doc
             _and_ MuchMore.guide) then only the first one which was found
             will be displayed.


Limitations
-----------

    -   Manual needs at least AmigaOS 2.0
    -   this version only has German texts
    -   there's no possibility to change Manual's behaviour 'on the fly' when
        using appicon mode (look at the Prefs-button: it's intended to start a
        GUI for changing all options. Send me a nice email/postcard if you
        want to see this feature ;-)


To Do (or not to do :-)
-----------------------

    - GUI for changing the search paths
    - turn this manual in an AmigaGuide-document
    - support of locale.library (with different language cataloges)
    - remove bugs (bugs? Are there any bugs left? Tell me if you found them)


Author
------

    I can be reached under ...

        email:      fh0015@rfhs1012.fh.uni-regensburg.de

        IRC:        Diogenes

        snail-mail: Thomas Egeter
                    Am Alten Dorf 31
                    D - 92637 Weiden
                    Germany


Thanx to
--------

    Douglas Adams       for the 'Hitchhiker's Guide'

    Volker Milsch       for his pretty icon. You can admire it as Manual's
                        internal icon.
                        for his comments while beta-testing ("It reacts
                        somehow funny, if ...")

    Reinhard            for his hint with a 'pseudo'-window

    Rotti               for his beta-testing