Document Man

Man v2.5 - © 1993 by Markus Hillenbrand
---------------------------------------

Man is a program to view texts and docs from Shell or WB.


1. Requirements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You need:            - asl.library         v37
                     - intuition.library   v37
                     - gadtools.library    v37
                     - graphics.library    v37
                     - dos.library         v37
		     - icon.library        v37 (ManCom only)
		     - commodities.library v37 (ManCom only)

Supported:           - locale.library      v38
                     - reqtools.library    v38 (busy-pointer)

Recommended:         - a harddisk to use help-texts efficiently
                     - "MultiView" from OS3.0 to read .guide files
                     - "Amigaguide" from OS2.0, if you donŽt have 3.0


2. Configuration
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To configure the program, type "man -c" or "man -config" in your shell.
A window opens where you can enter several specifications.

The gadget "Path for texts": here you enter the path which the program
will search to get the texts. You can also enter an assign, so that the
program will search several directories. The best of all is to create a
directory on a harddisk-partition where you locate all .DOC and .guide
files.

The gadget "program": here you enter the program to use for viewing and
reading texts (maybe your favourite text-reader).

The four gadgets on the right side represent the suffixes you can select.
In last of them you can enter your own suffix (if you insert ".guide" 
you can prevent the program from calling "Multiview" or "AmigaGuide".


3. Shell-usage
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To read a text from shell, you have to add its name in the command line.
Here you must not enter the suffix! "Man lha" for example searches for
lha.doc, lha.dok, lha.man, and ... in the preferred directory/assign.
This text will then be shown with your preferred text-reader.
If you enter "man -l" youŽll get a list of all texts located in your
directory/assign.
If you call man without any parameter, an asl.requester will open and
ask you for the text.


4. Localisation under WB2.1+
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since Workbench 2.1 the program can be localized, i.e. it can be translated
into several languages. Therefor I added the C source of the catalog. In the
original only the german and english version are supported.
The C source kann easily be changed, and with a suitable program (i.e. 
MakeCat - © Paladin-Software etc.) you can rebuild the catalog.
If you have created a new catalog it would be nice if you send me the new
C source via e-mail. Perhaps I can add the new language in a newer version
of man.


5. ManCom - the Man commodity
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ManCom v1.1 is a commodity, that waits for a hotkey (CTRL HELP) and opens a
requester, which asks for the text to show.
Its quite the same as calling man without any parameter from the shell, with
one exception: it resides in memory until it is unloaded.
With "Exchange" you can open the configuration window (the same as "man -c").

The program reads the tooltypes of the program icon. These can be:

  HOTKEY=...    and   CX_PRIORITY=...

Here you can enter values suitable for commodities.


6. Copyright
~~~~~~~~~~~~

`Man' is Copyright (C) 1993 Markus Hillenbrand and it's freely distributable
as long as all of its files are included in their original form without
additions, deletions, or modifications of any kind, and only a nominal fee
is charged for its distribution. This software is provided *AS IS* without 
warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. By using `Man', you agree
to accept the entire risk as to the quality and performance of the program.

Of course, it was tested rather extensively before it was released...

 
7. Address of the author
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HereŽs my address (bug-report, suggestions or something like that):

           Markus Hillenbrand
           Weserstrasse 9
           36124 Eichenzell-Loeschenrod 

           GERMANY


or e-mail: m_hillen@informatik.uni-kl.de