X-Git-Url: https://jxself.org/git/?p=ibg.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=README.md;h=28fad2b63bb10de1b3ce09cc418348ea6b0c84ee;hp=eb05a28441f8bb27bab0be603111494d2d4f604e;hb=7ab0306c0b24bf617c0281e45233d3d59477cd98;hpb=d243892ad9717d0d1cbb0dbc941b229b24a7f09e diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index eb05a28..28fad2b 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ 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 version-control and contributor-friendly: @@ -27,6 +27,9 @@ 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 -------------------- @@ -35,12 +38,15 @@ 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). -* Sphinx makes use of [Blockdiag](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/blockdiag) - for some of the diagrams; you'll need that too. +* [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 sphinx blockdiag + pip install -U sphinx blockdiag alabaster After you have everything installed, you can build the HTML version of the guide from a command prompt, like this: @@ -58,33 +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