Copyright (C) 1996 by Marcin Dalecki
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This is MInfo Ver-1.4.0 an Motif widget set based info-file browser.
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ABSTRACT:
=========
Info files are the plain ASCII text files used by the GNU online documentation
system.
Welcome and enjoy the nice feeling of this program, which may (accidentally)
appear all ready very similar to You :-).
REQUIERMENTS:
=============
To run this programm You will need:
1. Of course X11; preferably R6.1, at least R5.
2. at least Motif-1.2 ;
*Note: Intel Linux-2.x users may use the statically linked
version of the program, and get around without Motif at all...
3. the xpm library for the handling of coloured pixmaps.
May be the day isn't far away when it should be possible to compile and run
this program using the *free* Motif clone LessTif written by some brave hearts
on the net. (Watch out: http://www.hungry.com !)
1. MOTIVATION:
==============
The documentation provided with the free programs from the GNU suite
is using the TeX typesetting system to generate:
* On screen readable/brows-able info files, which are plain ASCII. This
is where all the indirection information for hyper links goes in.
* __Very__ nice looking output ready for paper publication, which is
missing all the cross links and indirections.
This documentation proved during my programming practice to be extraordinary
useful! Therefore I felled a strong need to have a nice browser for it. Yes I
know: They are all ready several of them: one special "editing" mode for the
emacs, one stand-alone terminal oriented application called info, and last
*but* least the compleatly useless xinfo.
Why by the hell did I create just another one? Hmm... That's quite simple to
answer: I HATE emacs like the pest. It's tooooo FAT. The user interface is
ugly like HELL. I can't never remember the ominous Multi-Multi-Multi key
sequences used by emacs to accomplish even the simplest operations. I never
know what the god damn Meta is mapped to on the particular terminal I'm
sitting in front of (And I even don't want to know it!). Is it: Esc, Meta,
Ctrl, Alt, AltGr, F12 or whatever? I can't hold a cigarette in one hand and
use it...
The second program mentioned above isn't a true resort for anybody who regrets
the user interface of the emacs. In fact it's emulating the same bogus key
sequences which are used by emacs's info browsing system. Therefore it's
simply a non option.
The third program was what I used before --- after hacking some of the most
annoying bugs of it out. Getting bored by, this I decided to produce something
more useful. Thereafter I simply decided to share the result with others...
Why the hell did I use Motif for it? Simply becouse it's the smoothest widget
set out there for X11, (despite ofcourse of Sun's OpenGL, which is becoming
more and more obsolete with every new X11 release...). And as I allready
mentioned above they are some guys out there trying to clone it compleatly!
I like the idea about having something esthetically satisfactory in the free
software world. If You are brave enought to dig into deep widget programming
mood I'm encouraging You *explicitly*, by providing this app for example,
to contact them!
2. INSTALLATION:
================
There are precompiled executables for Linux-2.1.x in this package both
statically and dynamically linked with the proprietary motif lib's. They may
(should) work with earlier versions of the standard C library as of 5.4.13 but
Your's mileage may vary. The program should too compile out of the box on any
UNIX platform featuring an ANSI compatible C compiler.
Alternatively You may try to compile it Yourself, by issuing:
xmkmf -a
make
If this fails, it is *very *likely that the Motif installation You are using
is broken in respect of the auto-configuration program imake. In case of
XFree-3.2 it's sufficient to add the following lines to the site.def file in
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config:
#ifndef BUILD_MOTIF
#define BUILD_MOTIF 1
#endif
just after the line containing the following check:
#ifdef BeforeVendorCF
As a last resort You may try to compile it by hand, or to edit the Makefile
which is generated by my own configuration; taking all the standard header
dependencies out. This isn't difficult but simply annoying...
Thereafter You will have the executable called "minfo". The rest of the
installation is quite simple. Just place minfo in the current path for
executables. NO bogous X-resource file is needed to make it work. I did a lot
of effort to hide this broken concept from the user. If You don't think that
the resource mechanism is broken, just imagin how far less memmory hungry,
blanzingly fast and simple to use or programm would X11 be without or with
far less of it! Or just try to explain somebody hwo they works!).
3. COPYRIGHT:
=============
Please see the COPYRIGHT file which SHOULD be contained in this package.
(That's the GPL - General Public License as used by the FSF).
4. USAGE:
=========
Just start the executalbe and watch out for the buttons B-).
5. CONTACTING THE AUTHOR:
=========================
You can reach me currently at the following e-mail addresses:
dalecki@sub994.sub.uni-goettingen.de
or alternatively:
dalecki@namu01.gwdg.de
or even at:
dalecki@www.sub.uni-goettingen.de
Patches, enhancements, thanks, postcards, contract job offers, .... are
highly welcome! My preffered communication languages are: Polish or German.
That's all:
Marcin Dalecki
