HLPTOHTML: HLP to HTML Converter

This program converts Digital's DCL HELP files (.HLP suffix) to HTML, the Hypertext Markup Language used on the Web. Separate files are produced for different levels in the HELP hierarchy, preserving the hierarchical nature of the Help information, and allowing use of the browser's Back command. The Hypertext ouput may be generated with the pre-formatted flag set (<pre>); the user may remove this and refine the presentation after conversion. Alternatively the input file may be pre-edited to preserve critical text formatting using the <pre> and </pre> directives.

Usage : the program expects a Help file prefix, eg. "FOOBAR". It will then read FOOBAR.HLP, creating the Hypertext files FOOBAR.HTML,FOOBAR_1.HTML,FOOBAR_2.HTML, etc. plus FOOBAR.HREF, a list of the references created which may be used to add further cross-references manually.

Depending on the layout of the original .HLP file, the hypertext output may start either in FOOBAR.HTML or in FOOBAR_1.HTML.

The C version takes the file prefix together with the -pre option from the command line; the FORTRAN version prompts the user.

Demos

The following help files have been converted:

Additional Information

For a tutorial introduction to HTML see: http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/demoweb/html-primer.html.

For a reference information on HTML see: http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/MarkUp/MarkUp.html

Source Code

The FORTRAN or C source code for Vax/VMS is available via ftp.
An improved FORTRAN version with fewer HTML violations is available (thanks to Allyn Tennant )

The C version is now more robust than the original f77 version.

Andrew Daviel

TRIUMF

advax@triumf.ca

C version substantially rewritten by R. Vankemmel (vankemme@imec.be)