Compiling MOST requires an ANSI C compiler. In addition you MUST have
a copy of the S-Lang library version 2.X. Version 1 is nolonger
supported. This library is available from
<http://www.jedsoft.org/slang/>.
INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
On Unix, you should be able to simply type:
./configure; make
at the Unix prompt. If you are using CYGWIN, you will need to ensure
that libslang.dll is on your PATH; otherwise the chkslang program will
not run.
If using DJGPP or MINGW32, do:
<edit src/makefile.w32, setting ARCH to either dgj or gw32>
cd src
make -f makefile.w32
For VMS, edit the file `vmsmake.com'. When finished, either type `@vmsmake'
or `@vmsmake gcc' at the VMS prompt. Once MOST has been created, it must be
installed as a foreign command. This means that you must first type:
$ most :== $device:[dir.containing.most]most.exe
I suggest that you first build MOST then view the doc file using MOST (`most
most.doc'). If you need help, hit the `h' key from within MOST.
MOST understands the following environment variables:
MOST_SWITCHES
MOST_EDITOR, SLANG_EDITOR, EDITOR
MOST_INITFILE
MOST_HELP
1. MOST_SWITCHES is a list of commonly used switches.
2. MOST_EDITOR and SLANG_EDITOR are formatted strings describing what
editor to use. The string can contain %s and %d formatting descriptors
that represent the file name and line number, respectively. For
example, if JED is your editor, then set MOST_EDITOR to 'jed %s -g %d'.
Since MOST is just one of several programs that use the S-Lang library,
I suggest that you use SLANG_EDITOR instead of MOST_EDITOR.
3. MOST_INITFILE specifies a configuration file for MOST. One can specifiy
keymaps, colors, etc. via this file. In the absence of
MOST_INITFILE, the program will look for a file call .mostrc in
the home directory (most.rc on non-Unix systems).
See `lesskeys.rc' for an example of a key definition file that
causes MOST to emulate the `less' pager. See also most-fun.txt
for a list of functions that can be used for key definitions. The
file `most.rc' list the bindings that are built-in to the
viewer.
4. If MOST_HELP is defined to point to an existing file, MOST will load a
file as a help file. This is useful for describing custom keymaps.
Any problems with MOST should be reported to davis@space.mit.edu.
[Note also that this is really the first non-trivial C program that
I ever wrote. Because of this, much of the code appears very
amateurish. For example, I tried very hard to avoid C constructs
that some some authors considered very bad, e.g., goto, continue,
break. Of course this made some of the code convoluted, e.g.,
contrast
int test = 1;
while (test)
{
function ();
if (-1 == some_function ())
test = 0;
if (test)
some_other_function ();
}
with:
while (1)
{
function ();
if (-1 == some_function ()) break;
some_other_function ();
}
I have since concluded that many text-book authors never actually
wrote anything non-trivial. Whenever I work on MOST, I try to make
some changes in an effort to clean it up. ]
--John Davis
