X-Git-Url: https://jxself.org/git/?p=ibg.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=README.md;h=28fad2b63bb10de1b3ce09cc418348ea6b0c84ee;hp=e90ea9345bedf700d090ac1767bc232fa7507c1c;hb=8b760e0550fa8a1636f2462b310ce7c2b1636dc7;hpb=387fd4f060cd59e1d96b016733947e20d6277b49

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index e90ea93..28fad2b 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -4,12 +4,17 @@ Inform Beginner's Guide
 Introduction
 ------------
 
-This repository contains the sources for 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.  This version is 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.
+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:
 
@@ -22,16 +27,28 @@ the 4th edition will be prepared.  The rationale for a 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:
+
+* Sphinx.  You can find the complete installation instructions
+  [here](http://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/stable/install.html).
+
+* [Blockdiag](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/blockdiag) is used for some of
+  the diagrams.
+
+* To create the HTML version, you'll need a recent (>=0.7.8) version of the
+  [Alabaster](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/alabaster) theme.
+
+If you have `pip`, this command will be all you need:
+
+    pip install -U sphinx blockdiag alabaster
 
-After you have Sphinx installed, you can build the HTML version of the
+After you have everything installed, you can build the HTML version of the
 guide from a command prompt, like this:
 
 	make html
@@ -47,33 +64,3 @@ this:
 	make latexpdf
 
 Other formats are available; just type `make` for more details.
-
-Conversion strategy
--------------------
-
-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.
-
-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.
-
-So, it's back to my original plan: use the PDF file.  Here's the first
-(major) part of the work:
-
-* Dump the text out of the PDF file
-* Convert all the 3rd edition text to Sphinx format
-* Get the online version to look good
-
-After that comes the 4th edition changes, hopefully in collaboration with
-others.  Also, in parallel with that, other niceties:
-
-* Add a glossary
-* Add an index
-* Prepare a new PDF version, via the Sphinx LaTeX converter