X-Git-Url: https://jxself.org/git/?p=ibg.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=README.md;h=28fad2b63bb10de1b3ce09cc418348ea6b0c84ee;hp=6c0485f6718730ec3b88c6b23cd14f7d9ad934bf;hb=7ab0306c0b24bf617c0281e45233d3d59477cd98;hpb=32e6323676b92eb33f4d8300e790003303be3cc1 diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 6c0485f..28fad2b 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -1,17 +1,22 @@ -Inform Beginner's Guide, 4th Edition -==================================== +Inform Beginner's Guide +======================= Introduction ------------ -This repository contains the sources for the 4th edition of the +This repository contains the sources for an updated version of the [Inform Beginner's Guide](http://www.firthworks.com/roger/IBG.html), -henceforth known as the IBG. The new edition will be in a new source -format that's more contributor-friendly (see below). It's a -work-in-progress; see the [issue tracker](https://github.com/i6/ibg/issues) -for how it's going. - -The rationale for this 4th edition is: +henceforth known as the IBG. This version is in a new source format that's +more version-control and contributor-friendly: +[Sphinx](http://sphinx-doc.org), a documentation build tool written in +[Python](http://python.org). With Sphinx, the source files are in a very +readable format called +[reStructuredText](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReStructuredText). + +This version of the IBG is a work-in-progress; see the +[issue tracker](https://github.com/i6/ibg/issues) for how it's going. +Initially it will be a straight conversion of the 3rd edition. After that, +the 4th edition will be prepared. The rationale for a 4th edition is: * There have been quite a few updates to Inform and its support libraries in the time since 2004, when the 3rd edition was published. @@ -22,48 +27,40 @@ The rationale for this 4th edition is: * Some old web links have gone away, to be replaced by new and better ones. +If you want a preview of how the online HTML version of the new guide +looks, you can find it [here](http://inform-beginners-guide.readthedocs.org). + Building from source -------------------- -The new source format is [Sphinx](http://sphinx-doc.org), a documentation -build tool written in [Python](http://python.org), which you will need to -install if you want to build the document. You can find the complete -installation instructions -[here](http://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/stable/install.html). +As well as these document sources, you will need: -After you have Sphinx installed, you can build the HTML version of the -guide from a command prompt, like this: +* Sphinx. You can find the complete installation instructions + [here](http://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/stable/install.html). - make html +* [Blockdiag](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/blockdiag) is used for some of + the diagrams. -Other formats are available; just type `make` for more details. +* To create the HTML version, you'll need a recent (>=0.7.8) version of the + [Alabaster](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/alabaster) theme. -Conversion strategy -------------------- +If you have `pip`, this command will be all you need: -The first three editions of the IBG were created with -[Adobe FrameMaker](http://www.adobe.com/products/framemaker.html). And the -FrameMaker source files have kindly been supplied by Roger Firth to make -this update, which opened up the possibility of creating an auto-converter. + pip install -U sphinx blockdiag alabaster -But unfortunately, what with FrameMaker being proprietary, there isn't much -out there apart from FrameMaker itself that can read them. I was hoping -that conversion using [Mif2Go](http://mif2go.com) might be a possibility, -but it turns out that that's just a plugin for FrameMaker. I guess I could -get a trial FrameMaker license, try to set up the plugin and get it to -autoconvert to some usable format, but it all looks far too messy. But on -the plus side, the supplied GIF images are totally usable. +After you have everything installed, you can build the HTML version of the +guide from a command prompt, like this: -So, it's back to my original plan: use the PDF file. Here's the first -(major) part of the work: + make html -* Dump the text out of the PDF file -* Convert all the text to Sphinx format -* Get the online version to look good +For building the PDF version, you need a reasonably recent installation of +TeX Live. Release 2014 will do. You will also need the Emerald font +package from https://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/emerald/. This cannot +be installed with `tlmgr`, nor does it seem to be packaged by the usual +Linux or BSD distributions. Scripts for installing and uninstalling +Emerald are provided in the `tools` directory. When you're ready, type +this: -After that comes the 4th edition changes, hopefully in collaboration with -others. Also, in parallel with that, other niceties: + make latexpdf -* Add a glossary -* Add an index -* Prepare a new PDF version, via the Sphinx LaTeX converter +Other formats are available; just type `make` for more details.