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- The program INT2GUID converts the Interrupt list files into an input file
- for the TurboPower Software MAKEHELP program to create a GUIDE or POPHELP
- Popup Reference Machine database. The program is a transcription of INT2QH
- written by Kai Uwe Rommel.
-
- GUIDE is included in some versions of the Turbo Professional package, and
- POPHELP is included in the Object Professional package from TurboPower
- Software. MAKEHELP is included in both packages and compiles help files
- for its accompanying popup program.
-
- INT2GUID reads either the interrup.lst file or the partial interrup.a ...
- files, and other files defined in the INT2GUID and in the configuration file
- INT2GUID.CFG. The files must be located in the current directory. The
- created MakeHelp source file is written to standard output and can be
- redirected. Two temporary files topic.tmp and subtopic.tmp are created in
- the current directory during the process.
-
- The configuration file allows conditional compilation, and it is configured
- for a compilation that is acceptable by both versions of MAKEHELP. It can
- be edited for compilations optimized for GUIDE or POPHELP, see comments in
- INT2GUID.CFG.
-
- From the 2/91 list, INT2GUID creates a 1.6M source file for MAKEHELP which
- then creates a help database of about 1.3M (poor compression ratio!).
- INT2GUID executes i 1'15" on a 20 MHz 386 based machine, and MAKEHELP
- executes in 2'40".
-
- The 2/91 Interrupt list, and other files used for this help system,
- includes about 2500 topics. The topics are in general listed in 18 lines
- sub and sub-sub indices, and the sub indices are again listed in the main
- index. GUIDE and POPHELP can also pop up on a topic indicated by an
- interrupt number at the cursor's position on the screen.
-
- GUIDE is capable of handling about 4300 topics, and POPHELP can handle
- about 5000.
-
- Bent Lynggaard.
-
-
- 1992-04-16. INT2GUID generates a 2.3 MB file with 3505 topics from the
- INTER29x files (February 1992), and the database file is 1.8 MB long.
-
-
- 1992-12-19. The configuration file that is included with INT2GUID v. 1.07
- is optimized for POPHELP. The main reason is that the Interrrupt List has
- grown to exceed the capacity of the GUIDE program. INT2GUID can create one
- or two help files for the GUIDE program from selected parts of the Interrupt
- List. The configuration file should be edited for GUIDE optimization, see
- comments in the file. If two help files are created, the initial part of
- INTERRUP.A should be the initial part of both source files. GUIDE should
- be initialized with the file requesting more resources, so sufficient memory
- will be allocated to serve any of them, thus the proper file can be activated
- by F3 when GUIDE is active.
-
- The average topic length has been reduced since the first versions of
- INT2GUID to appr. 7.6 characters, allowing about 8600 topics in the POPHELP
- system. Facilities are included in INT2GUID v. 1.07 to include Function
- Classification characters as parts of the topic names. Function Classification
- will be introduced in the Interrupt List after release 33. This will increase
- the average length by two characters, thus reducing the maximum number of
- topics to about 6800. The facility can be enabled and disabled in the
- configuration file INT2GUID.CFG.
-
- INT2GUID generates a 3.1 MB file with 4842 topics from the Interrupt List
- files release 32 (September 1992), and the database file is 2.6 MB long.
-
- 1993-04-12: Minor editings in INT2GUID.C, POPHINTS.TXT, and INT2GUID.HLP.
- Classification enabled in INT2GUID.CFG. INT2GUID.TBL updated to Interrupt
- List release 34.
-
- INT2GUID generates a 3.4 MB file with 5193 topics from the Interrupt List
- files release 34 (April 1993), it uses 350 kB disk space for temporary files
- in the current directory, and the database file created by MAKEHELP is 2.8 MB
- long.
-
- 1993-07-03: Fixed a bug in INT2GUID. The bug was introduced i version 1.07
- and caused an infinite loop if the input source was a single INTERRUP.LST
- file.
-
- Ralf Brown's INTPRINT program provides an exelent filter that can reduce
- the size of the database file for POPHELP/GUIDE. New options in INTPRINT
- will keep the original divider lines (-k) and avoid paging (-l0), so the
- result can be used as input for INT2GUID. Use
- INTPRINT -k -l0 -L1 -FINT2GUID.FLT [-sSUMMARY] -m INTERRUP.A INTERRUP.LST
- where INT2GUID.FLT is a file with filter information. The optional SUMMARY
- file eases the adjustment of the filter. An INT2GUID.FLT file is included
- in this package which filters out about 3/4 of the Interrupt List. See also
- INTPRINT.DOC for filter file formats. Notice that a filtered version of the
- Interrupt List cannot legally be publicly distributed due to copyright
- restrictions.
-
- 1994-03-19: INT2GUID version 1.10 must have a parameter "-nofilter" or
- "-f<file name>" to specify in the copyright notice if the transcription is
- based on a filtered version of the Interrupt list. <file name> is the name
- of an INTPRINT filter file used to create a partial Interrupt List. If
- -f<file name> is specified, INT2GUID will include topic "Filter File" with
- the contents of file INT2GUID.RE2 followed by the contents of the specified
- file. INT2GUID will toggle MAKEHELP text attribute 1 before and after the
- included filter file. The default MAKEHELP attribute 1 (and the alternative
- attribute suggested in file POPHINTS.TXT section 4) uses an alternate
- background color, so trailing blanks appear in the output.
-
- It is legal to redistrubute also partial transcriptions of Ralf Brown's
- Interrupt List provided that it is stated in the copyright notice. INT2GUID
- does its best to include the proper information, notice however that the
- user of INT2GUID is responsible for correct copyright notices in
- redistributed transcriptions.
-
- 1994-11-02: The Interrupt List has grown so big that POPHELP can no longer
- handle the whole list. Thus it is necessary to pass the list through a filter
- before compiling it. Remember to specify the filter file name to INT2GUID
- also with the -f<file name> option.
-