@database "WhirlDisc Manual"
@$VER: "WhirlDisc Manual" 0.1 (11.8.2000)
@author "Neil Cafferkey"
@(c) "Neil Cafferkey"

Copyright (C) 2000 Neil Cafferkey

This manual is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This manual is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this manual; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston,
MA 02111-1307, USA.


@node "main" "WhirlDisc Manual"

  @{b}@{u}WhirlDisc 0.1@{uu} - A World Book(TM) Encyclopaedia viewer@{ub}


    @{"Introduction" link "intro"}

    @{"System Requirements" link "requirements"}
    @{"Usage" link "usage"}

    @{"Thanks" link "thanks"}
    @{"Contacting the Author" link "author"}
    @{"Legal Information" link "legal"}

    @{"History" link "history"}
@endnode


@node "intro" "Introduction"

WhirlDisc is a viewer for the World Book(TM) encyclopaedia. It currently
only displays text. It has been tested with various 1998 and 1999 PC
editions of the encyclopaedia, but doesn't work with Macintosh editions. Of
course, you must own an original World Book(TM) CD-ROM to use
this software.

I don't have much time to work on this program anymore, so I'd be glad if
anybody (or a number of people) wanted to take it over to develop it
further. It's released under the GNU GPL.

@endnode


@node "requirements" "System Requirements"

The following are needed to install and run WhirlDisc:

    - An original World Book(TM) CD-ROM.
    - OS 3.0 or greater.
    - About 330kb of free RAM.
    - About 330kb of disk space.

@endnode


@node "usage" "Usage"

Before you run WhirlDisc you must ensure that the program's DATADRAWER
ToolType is set to the location of the encyclopaedia files. It will usually
be the name of the encyclopaedia's CD-ROM.

WhirlDisc can be used with several different versions of the encyclopaedia.
When you use a particular version for the first time, an index for that
version is created and written to disk. This may take about thirty seconds.

The first thing to appear is the search window. The search engine isn't very
sophisticated at present; you usually have to be exactly right in what you
type in. To find a person named "John Smith" you should enter "smith, john".

The @{b}Subjects@{ub} list contains topics related to the search words entered.
Clicking on one of the subjects causes the titles of related articles to
appear in the @{b}Articles@{ub} list below.

Click once on an article title to display that article. Multiple article
windows can be open simultaneously. In addition to the scroll gadgets, the
up and down cursor keys can be used to move through the text.

@endnode


@node "thanks" "Thanks"

I would like to thank the following people:

  - Mark Adler, for writing the info-zip decompression code used in
    WhirlDisc.
  - Dirk Stoecker, for making the info-zip decompression code more
    Amiga-friendly.

@endnode


@node "author" "Contacting the Author"

Please send bug reports, suggestions, and any other correspondence to one of
the following addresses.

E-mail: caffer@cs.ucc.ie

Post: Neil Cafferkey,
      30, Upper Kensington,
      Rochestown,
      Cork,
      Ireland.

@endnode


@node "legal" "Legal Information"

WhirlDisc is released under the terms of the @{"GNU General Public Licence" link "gpl.txt/MAIN"}.
See the individual source files for copyright information.

World Book is a trademark of World Book, Inc. All other trademarks are
trademarks of their respective owners.

@endnode


@node "history" "History"

@{b}V0.1 (August 2000)@{ub}

  - First release.

@endnode