Category : Word Processors
Archive   : HSHELL3.ZIP
Filename : CHAP1.TXT

HyperShell Hypertext control system




Users Guide



























VERSION 4







Copyright (c) 1989,1990,1991 Text Technology

All Rights Reserved














Preface HyperShell Users Guide







HyperShell is a trade mark of Text Technology

MSDOS is a trademark of Microsoft

UNIX is a trademark of AT&T





















ISSUE 4.1

Copyright (c) 1989,1990,1991 Text Technology

Copies of this document must not be made, unless with the express,
written permission of Text Technology or an appointed representative.

A copy of this documentation, as supplied on disk, may be printed
for the purposes of supporting the evaluation of the product.




Text Technology
66 Kennedy Avenue
Macclesfield
Cheshire
England
SK10 3DE













HyperShell Users Guide Preface


Preface

HyperShell is a general purpose hypertext control system. Standard
hypertext features provided include a text frame based presentation
style with highlighted references permitting navigation to other
frames in the same or another file, to popup notes which can have
further references, and allowing backtracking through visited frames,
and marking of frames and references for later perusal. The program
also supports graphic screen displays with nested selection zones,
based on the common BLOAD format screen files.

Additional features offered include popup menus, paged displays of
menus or text files, DOS management facilities, scripting language
with programming capability, variables, macros, formfill input fields
and numerous features such as program invocation permitting the use of
HyperShell for menuing systems, help systems, computer aided
instruction, simple databases, DOS directory managers and numerous
other applications. Alternative hypertext structures are also
supported, permitting adhoc creation of supporting text. The
hypertext files and supporting files can be compressed and can be
directly accessed in compressed form.

HyperShell has been designed to be fast, small, and powerful,
supporting files larger than available memory whilst occupying a fixed
amount of memory itself (120k currently) so that it can be used for
controlling other applications. It is designed to run on the widest
range of equipment, and the components do not need any more than a
minimal 256k single floppy mono system, although they will benefit
from the use of colour, a mouse, and a hard disk. The system is very
configurable, including colour schemes, key mappings, all text
strings, control menu and presentation 'look and feel'. The supporting
files are of textual content, permitting easy production and
maintenance.

Version 4 brings a configurable integrated environment which may be
used for producing new hyperfiles, as well as providing the basis for
extensible hyperfiles. Also in version 4 are a number of other
additions, such as the preprocessor, intended to make scripts easier
to understand, and the resident programs to provide help systems and
the floating point extensions.



Nick Taylor April 1991






i












Preface HyperShell Users Guide


History

The HyperShell system was initially started in June 1988 to satisfy my
claim that a help system did not need a compiled database, and could
be run directly from text format control files. Hypertext features
were added, and the program was released in October 1988, at version
1.8, incorporating just the reader and the checking program.

In January 1989, version 2.0 was released, incorporating the first
hyperfile editor.

In June 1989, version 2.5 was released, incorporating improvements to
the editor, and a new hyperfile printing utility.

In January 1990, version 3.0 was released, including graphics support
with graphics capture and preparation facilities, support for
compressed media files, and a notefile editor.

In November 1990, version 3.5 was distributed as an interim release,
providing some of the version 4 reader functionality, and extra
graphics support.

In April 1991, after much hard work, version 4 was finally released,
incorporating the integrated development environment, the
preprocessor, and the resident HyperShell subset.

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to all those of you who have contributed suggestions
for improvements and bug reports, and to all of you who have
contributed by registering.

Thanks are especially due to Clive Bennett, Bill Burt and Joe Lynes,
Jack Burston, Heinz Dreher and his team, Andy Hadley, Werner Knudsen,
Carlos Pintor, David Scarbrough and numerous others whose enthusiasm
and help have been much appreciated.

HyperShell would not have been possible without the superb Borland
Turbo-C environment, which offers a tremendous amount for the price.

Also I would like to thank Nigel Woodhead, whose excellent book
'Hypertext & Hypermedia - Theory and Applications' has helped me
further understand the applications for hypertext with ideas for
future developments.
[Published by Addison Wesley / Sigma - ISBN 0-201-54442-3]

And last, but by no means least, I would like to thank my wife,
who has been patient in answering phone calls and making me cups
of tea.


ii











HyperShell Users Guide Preface


Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.1 Purpose of this guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
1.2 Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.3 Where to start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.4 Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2. Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.1 Hypertext . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2 Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.4 Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.5 Menus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.6 Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.7 Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.8 Action modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.9 Backtrack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.10 Notepad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.11 Control menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.12 Searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.13 Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.14 Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.15 Run options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.16 Autoreferencing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.17 Restart file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.18 Menu bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.19 Key mappings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.20 Reference flags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
2.21 Formatting flags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3. Hyperfile Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.1 Authoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.2 Different approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.3 Overview of authoring tools . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.3.1 Material Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.3.2 The integrated development environment . . . 20
3.3.3 The preprocessor / checker . . . . . . . . . 21
3.3.4 The formatted print . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.4 Developing a hyperfile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.4.1 Original material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.4.2 Using existing material . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.5 Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.5.1 Naming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.5.2 Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.6 Different application structures . . . . . . . . . 24
3.6.1 Narrative Hypertext . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.6.2 Help systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.6.3 Menu systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.6.4 Expert Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.6.5 Computer Aided Instruction . . . . . . . . . 25
3.6.6 User Interface Prototyping . . . . . . . . . 26
3.6.7 Directory browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.6.8 Text file viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.6.9 Adventure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.7 Master hyperfile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.8 Alternative structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4. HyperShell language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29









Preface HyperShell Users Guide


4.1 The basic hyperfile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.1.1 Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.1.2 Global items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.1.3 Local items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.1.4 The frame display format . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.1.5 The Header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.1.6 The Footer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.1.7 Popup menus . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . 34
4.1.8 Conditional text . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 35
4.1.9 Help menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.1.10 The SETUP script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.1.11 The INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.1.12 Supporting text files . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.1.13 The menu bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.1.14 Input fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4.2 Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4.2.1 Action modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.2.2 Multiple actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.2.3 Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.2.4 Named Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.2.5 Variable expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.2.6 Other uses of variables . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.2.7 Condition codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.2.8 System variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.2.9 Pseudo variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.2.10 String splitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.2.11 Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.2.12 Application control flags . . . . . . . . . 47
4.2.13 Uses of condition codes . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.2.14 Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.2.15 Control structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.2.16 Subroutines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.2.17 Parameters on scripts and notes . . . . . . 54
4.2.18 Access to the environment . . . . . . . . . 55
4.2.19 Simple interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.2.20 String Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.2.21 Scale number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.2.22 File input / output . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4.2.23 Printed output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.2.24 Backtracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.2.25 Expression evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4.2.26 Mouse cursor positioning . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.2.27 Searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.2.28 The Notepad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.3 Application structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.3.1 Frames as menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.3.2 Program execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.3.3 Form Fill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.3.4 Data bases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.3.5 Directory browsers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.3.6 Graphic screen display . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.4 Advanced features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.4.1 Display control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Direct Positioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71










HyperShell Users Guide Preface


Indents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Direct output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Direct input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Screen saving and showing . . . . . . . . . . . 73
4.4.2 Program control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
SHARE directive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Autoreferencing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Unget character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Immediate reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4.4.3 Communicating with other programs . . . . . . 76
4.4.4 String conversions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4.4.5 Formatting Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4.4.6 Pattern match . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Pattern specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Examples of patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Variable comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Menu table lookup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Patterns in searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4.4.7 Character input translation . . . . . . . . . 82
4.4.8 Timing and timeouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Single character input with timeout . . . . . . 83
Time of day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Delta time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Delay in displayed text . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Teletype mode display . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
4.5 Hints, Tips and Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
4.5.1 Special characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Frame and note displays . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Action strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4.5.2 Display tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Local key mappings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Frame revisits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4.5.3 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Staged backtrack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Disabling Function keys . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Clear message line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Extended matching frames list . . . . . . . . . 86
Automatic pick and search . . . . . . . . . . . 86
4.5.4 Keeping organised . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
4.6 Processing flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
4.6.1 Initialisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
4.6.2 Frame display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
4.6.3 Interaction (after frame display) . . . . . . 88
4.6.4 Action string processing . . . . . . . . . . 88
5. Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.1 Hyperfile level configuration . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.2 Headings and control keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.3 Control menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.4 Other Function Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.5 Other keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.6 General control strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.7 Run control options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5.7.1 Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92









Preface HyperShell Users Guide


5.7.2 Extended options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
5.8 Configuring colour schemes . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
5.9 General HyperShell configuration . . . . . . . . . 95
6 The HyperShell Reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
6.1 MSDOS environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
6.2 Runtime files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
6.3 Command line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
6.4 Which program to use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
6.5 Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
6.6 The Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
6.7 The Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
6.8 Text string input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
6.8.1 Word picking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
6.8.2 Copy cursor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
6.9 Moving about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
6.9.1 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
6.9.2 Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
6.9.3 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
6.9.4 Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
6.9.5 Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
6.9.6 Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
6.9.7 Input fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
6.10 Control menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
6.10.1 Home Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
6.10.2 Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
6.10.3 Backtrack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
6.10.4 Select back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
6.10.5 Notepad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
6.10.6 Search Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
6.10.7 Type file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

6.10.8 Do action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
6.10.9 DOS Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
6.10.10 Exit to DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
6.11 Paged displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
6.12 Display states . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
6.13 Error messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
6.13.1 Popup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
6.13.2 Error codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
6.13.3 Other Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
7. Integrated Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
7.1 Edit methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
7.1.1 In memory edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
7.1.2 Edit from file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
7.2 Edit control file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
7.3 File structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
7.4 Keeping backups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
7.5 Command line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
7.6 Program operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
7.7 Editing operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
7.8 Edit mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
7.8.1 Text display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
7.9 Moving around . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
7.9.1 Inserting text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
7.9.2 Margins and formatting . . . . . . . . . . . 118









HyperShell Users Guide Preface


7.9.3 Deleting text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
7.9.4 Copying and importing . . . . . . . . . . . 119
7.9.5 Referencing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Flagging words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Adding cross references . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Automatic referencing . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Clearing references . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Checking references . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
7.9.6 Searching and replacing . . . . . . . . . . 121
7.9.7 Other functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
7.9.8 Other default mappings . . . . . . . . . . . 122
8. HyperShell Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
8.1 HyperShell Checker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
8.1.1 Command line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
8.1.2 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
8.1.3 The output file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
8.1.4 Check switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
8.1.5 Cross reference file . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
8.1.6 Using the Checker . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
8.1.7 The HSL language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Example HSL specifications . . . . . . . . . . 130
Combining files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Using the HSL definitions . . . . . . . . . . 131
Error handing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
8.1.8 The Preprocessor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Quoting of strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Defining a Macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Calling a macro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Parameter processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Including files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
File Diversions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Tidying the output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Assigning unique names . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Conditional expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Arithmetic operations . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
String handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Program Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Error reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Diagnostic output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
HyperShell related functions . . . . . . . . . 138
8.2 HyperShell Formatted print . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
8.2.1 Command line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
8.2.2 Print directives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
8.2.3 Program operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
8.2.4 Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Scheme sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Control sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Strings in program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
8.3 Graphics support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
8.3.1 Graphics capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
8.3.2 Tagged BLOAD files . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
8.3.3 PCX format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
8.3.4 Selection menu production . . . . . . . . . 145
8.3.4 External graphics displays . . . . . . . . . 145









Preface HyperShell Users Guide


8.3.5 Text screen import . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
8.3.6 Text over graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
8.4 File Compression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
8.4.1 File Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
8.5 HyperShell Popup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
8.5.1 Subset Facilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
8.5.2 Automatic mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
8.5.3 Command line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
8.5.4 Using HyPop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
8.5.5 Control keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
8.5.6 Creating files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
8.6 HyperShell Floating Point Calculator . . . . . . . 151
8.6.1 Command line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
8.6.2 Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
8.6.3 Control options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
8.6.4 Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
8.6.5 Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
8.6.6 Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
8.6.7 Computation precision . . . . . . . . . . . 155
8.6.8 Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
9 Environment Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
9.1 Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
9.1.1 Control actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
9.1.2 Editing actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
9.1.3 Miscellaneous actions . . . . . . . . . . . 161
9.1.4 File actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
9.2 Dynamic menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
9.3 Extra Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
9.4 Extra condition codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
9.5 Other additions to reader functionality . . . . . 165
9.6 Configuration of edit mode functions . . . . . . . 166
10 Hyperfile Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
10.1 Hyperfile structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
10.2 Directives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
10.3 References and control flags . . . . . . . . . . 179
10.4 Formatting control flags . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
10.5 HyperShell control actions . . . . . . . . . . . 189
10.6 Action modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
10.6.1 General action modifiers . . . . . . . . . 212
10.6.2 Iterators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
10.6.3 String Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
10.6.5 Dynamic menu functions . . . . . . . . . . 225
10.7 Condition codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
10.7.1 General condition codes . . . . . . . . . . 230
10.7.2 Global options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
10.7.3 Local condition codes . . . . . . . . . . . 231
10.8 System Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
10.9 Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
10.10 Restrictions, limits and reserved chars . . . . 239
10.10.1 Size limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
10.10.2 Number limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
10.10.3 Reserved characters . . . . . . . . . . . 239











HyperShell Users Guide Introduction





Introduction



1. Introduction


1.1 Purpose of this guide

This manual is a guide to the production of hypertext files for the
HyperShell system. It describes the mechanism for producing and
maintaining hyperfiles, and provides an introduction to more advanced
programming using HyperShell.

This manual assumes that you have used HyperShell to view the example
files, and that you are familiar with the operation of your computer.
In depth experience of computing, and programming in particular, is an
advantage for the more advanced topics, and an understanding of the
fundamentals of MSDOS is also useful. It is by no means essential that
you are `computer literate', however, as there is sufficient
information provided for anyone to produce a hyperfile.

1.2 Contents

The Concepts chapter provides an introduction to hypertext concepts
and HyperShell terminology.

The Producing a hyperfile chapter gives information on how you should
write hypertext material, and how the HyperShell system is used for
different applications.

The HyperShell Language chapter provides a phased tutorial into the
use of the HyperShell specification language, and provides specific
examples of how the language is used.

The Configuration chapter describes how you can customise the
environment for your own applications.

The chapter describing the operation of the HyperShell reader program
gives full details of how the reader is used with the default
configuration.

The Integrated Environment chapter describes how you use the
integrated environment, and gives a step by step guide to the edit
mode.

The HyperShell Utilities chapter describes the operation of the
various HyperShell support utilities.





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Introduction HyperShell Users Guide


The Environment Configuration chapter reference guide provides a
reference for the HyperShell language, as used in the integrated
environment in addition to that used in the basic reader program.

The Hyperfile Reference chapter provides a reference for the
HyperShell language as used in the basic reader program.

1.3 Where to start

If you are just starting out with HyperShell, you should read the
concepts chapter first.

You should then read the Producing a hyperfile chapter to become
familiar with the ways of producing material, and to get some idea as
to how you should write the material and structure it for different
applications.

Before using the integrated environment, you should read the
appropriate chapter. This is so that you know the capabilities of the
system and the shortcuts possible.

You should then make your way through the HyperShell language chapter,
building your own hyperfile as you go, using the configuration and
reference sections as you proceed.

1.4 Notation

The guide uses the following format for examples of code and formats
of statement:-

Example of code

Also, some examples are provided with a box drawn around them:-

+--------------------+
| Example in a box |
+--------------------+

The curly brackets are used to denote optional parameters:-

Text required and {optional}

Where one of a number of options is required, the bar symbol separates
alternatives:-

this|that|the other










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