Re: FAQ formatting

John M. Wobus (jmwobus@mailbox.syr.edu)
Wed, 29 Jan 1997 17:14:28 -0500

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I also use 'lynx -dump' and make (and also cron), which work fine if
you like updating html with your Unix editor. It might also be
practical for those with web development tools. I've included a very
simple example Makefile below.

My problems with the method:

(1) Lynx likes to choose the line lengths. I encode URLs so they
show up as URLs in the ASCII version (as well as the browser
display), like this:

<a href="http://www.whatever.com/">http://www.whatever.com</a>

If the URL is long, I somethimes get this in the text file:

http://www.whatever.co
m

I'd like to tell Lynx to use longer output lines.

(2) I'd like to use tables. Lynx doesn't support them.

(3) I'd like to have FAQ memos that can be either broken into
parts (for posting, browsing, etc), or used all at once (can make
e-mailing or printing the memo very convenient). I have no problem
running a perl script or some such thing that implements the
necessary 'includes' to do this. What bothers me is having URL
labels in the FAQ that jump to sections of the FAQ, e.g., labeling
an acronym so that clicking it jumps into a glossary. In the
un-split version of the FAQ memo, it would have to jump to location
within the same file while in the split version, the same location
might be in a different file. This makes the 'include processing'
more complex. Anyone struggled with this?

-John Wobus

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
# Makefile
# Set up cron to cd to your FAQ directory and run this Makefile
# nightly and it will keep the text versions of your HTML FAQ
# memos up to date.
#
# Warning: I cheated and used spaces instead of tabs just for this
# mailing. Don't try this at home. 'Make' demands tabs.
#
# Note: there are Makefile tricks you can use to reduce the
# size of the Makefile: very useful if you have lots
# of memos or lots of parts of your memo.
#
# Remember: 'make' is your friend.
#

all: faqmemo1.html faqmemo2.html

faqmemo1.txt: faqmemo1.html
/usr/local/bin/lynx -dump faqmemo1.html >faqmemo1.txt

faqmemo2.txt: faqmemo2.html
/usr/local/bin/lynx -dump faqmemo2.html >faqmemo2.txt
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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