h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Is there the remotest possibility of having a GuideML --> HTML converter program for off-line use, to check and change the page before logging on?

Oh, and double seems to repeat the text in the guide entry.

I think its pretty unlikely that there'll be an offline converter mainly because it would probably have to be platform specific(Windows, Mac, Unix, Linux etc) but I'll point out your query to any passing PTWVH that I see.

The double text on etc is because that indicates to, or confuses the parser into believing, that there are 2 entries to process into HTML for your browser.

Probably best to consider it an undocumented feature and a handy little labour saving device if you ever want slabs of text to appear twice on your page without having to type it out twice. Happens all the time, honest.

;^)#

A feature, not a bug

Could you write it in Java, or as a browser plugin or something?

"Could you write it in Java" - me? eeeeekkkkkk!

I suppose someone could write something but it would be a huge job and making it compatible with all the browsers etc would be ugly.

It wouldn't be much good if it didn't do the same as the site & making sure it was exactly the same as the official h2g2 parser in ever possible combination/variation would be another huge job.

To get a rough idea of how much html even simple GuideML tags generate have a look here http://www.h2g2.com/A184835

To give yourself a template of sorts, you could copy the GuideML tag code examples (from each of the tag pages listed on the page for this forum) into a text file & use that as an offline guide.

hope it helps
;^)#

;^)#

You could write it in perl.

Ooo, I don't like where this conversation's going. :u)

Actually, it might be suitable to find a program that validates XML code in general. At least you'd be rid of most of those pesky syntax errors that eat up bandwidth.

If such a program doesn't exist, it's not that big a job to write one in Java or (even better) perl.

I know nothing about perl - though I notice on your homepage (nice page btw ) that you've "taken a job requiring database, Perl, C++, and HTML programming" - so I guess it's over to you

;^)#

That was a nasty conversational overhand volley there, Bruce.

As I already have a job writing perl, etc, I don't have much time to write such scripts. But I'm pretty sure such a program already exists, though it likely wouldn't preview the output. Such a program could have other uses for me, actually, so perhaps I'll have look around.

Sorry, but I learnt early in life that saying 'I know how to do that' is tantamount to volunteering

I'd be grateful for anything you can come up with - at the moment I do all my GuideML page coding in Visual Studio & then have to remove all the 'helpful' HTML that M/Soft adds for me - but its either that or the featureless Notepad.

Some of the Mac users here like/use BBEdit.

;^)#

Gosh, I just use the H2G2 'Edit Page' function.

Doesn't Visual Studio choke on GuideML (i.e., non-HTML) tags and such? Wouldn't it raise an eyebrow at ''? Or is it XML compliant? I've never used it, so...

Back before I switched my home page over to GuideML, I found that, when I did a preview of my HTML, the page came up showing the new page along with the text box containing my HTML script. But for some reason, all ' 's in my script were converted to ' '. This kind of forced me to edit my HTML locally on a text editor and then paste it in, using the back button to fix things.

I don't know if it still does that (but I'm pretty sure it does). I use GuideML now, which reminds me: Can the tag be modified to include the ALT attribute? I have little tool-tip messages that I intended to use, but the tag just ignores ALT.

Hmmm...Can't think of any more topics to cram into this message. Pity.

I use the h2g2 edit page function for quicky pages but VIs Studio for the more complex ones or ones involving escaped GuideML/HTML commands so that I can keep a local copy as escaped commands become unescaped when you re-edit the page.

Visual Studio seems to be XML tolerant. I haven't really played with it enough to know if you'd call it complaint, but it doesn't get upset with etc.

The preview function on pages (& forums) will do some parsing & tends to convert some special characters. I'm not actually sure what the problem was with ' ' - coz they look the same here. Non breaking spaces maybe?

The tag doesn't support ALT - I'll mention the suggestion to the next h2g2 person I see. In the meantime you could always use the HTML with ALT - you can always mix HTML with GuideML as I think you've done on your page

;^)#

Yes, those were supposed to be nbsp's. That's what I get for not previewing.

I could just use (as I've done with my 'Friendly Folks' section), but it's a lot easier to put a bordered, right-justified picture with a drop shadow and text wrapping around it using GuideML than using HTML, as you well know.

I do in fact use a mix of GuideML and HTML. One thing I learned about writing HTML is "Go with the flow" - don't fight HTML. In other words, don't try to force HTML to format things in some crazy way because it will end up being a pain in the butt, and probably won't even work on certain browsers.

In fact, the search text box in the goo at the top of the H2G2 page screws up on my browser (Netscape 4.07 for Linux). The text box is displayed underneath the text 'search the guide', the hunk of goo to the left of the text box (above 'my home') is missing and a hunk of goo to the right of the advert has been mysteriously reproduced to the right of the text box. This doesn't happen on my broswer at home (which is probably a newer version of Netscape). Still...

I also avoid using Javascript, since some browsers handle Javascript not at all well, and I like pages that work on all browsers.

If you use it well, JavaScript can just be an enhancement, not required. IE doesn't seem to support it well, though.
Even DNA uses javascript. See his 'Unfinished Buisness of the Twentieth Century page, it has a millennium countdown nicely embedded in the text.

I think DNA has the advantage of a building (TDV Towers) full of programmers to make sure 'his' javascript is widely compatible

;^)#

That's true. But I think some browsers don't 'do' JavaScipt.

You're right - some broswers don't "do" javascript & some users choose to turn it off

Hey, first time I've seen that... Posted: just now. Last reply: just now.
What is annoying about Javascript is how to have it make sense with or without. For example, if you want to say whether someone has Javascript or not, you have to use the double negative,eg

You should [not] have problems with JavaScript

where 'not' is implemented by JavaScript.
I might be wrong, there might be some way - I vaguely remember someone saying something about putting HTML in a tag before the HTML comment, but...

There are plenty of XML validators out there. I'd think you could validate with XML Notepad or XML Spy, at the very least.

I'm thinking of a different tool, though. It shouldn't be that hard to put together a WYSIWYG(more or less) GuideML editor, at least for the Win32 platform.

I wonder, would people use such a thing? I might devote a few cycles to one, but I'd hate to do so if TDV already had tools under development.

But as I've said elsewhere, using a textbox to write GuideML is about as daft as writing letters to your mum with a clay tablet and a pointy stick.

I'm reasonably sure that there isn't one under development at TDV, at least for the near future.
I'd use one if it was available - I can't speak for anyone else.

;^)#