Yes, I agree with you. I chose the cross reference as a list as it was easy. Better to have a list of specific words. On the links not switching pages - if there is more than one instance of the word on a page, it links to the next instance. The coloring of the browser for links and a currently selected link are pretty much the same. Makes it hard to see the change, particularly if near the bottom of the page so it doesn't scroll. It wouldn't be hard to make the links go to the next page instead of the next instance of the word.
My thinking is that this program could be run before distribution and cleaned up a little bit to get rid of some of the less desirable links and add others needed, rather than have this program available for people to run if they want it. I'm just pleasantly surprised that the program still runs after over ten years. Only had to make a small change when the format of the help files changed several years ago. I love the stability of the J system. On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 9:27 AM, Ian Clark <[email protected]>wrote: > Yes, Don, this is potentially most useful to me and I'd like to get it > working (again). > > I tried converting all x.-->x y.-->y and \-->/ (for the Mac) but I hit > snags, like use of (m.) So I gave up that approach, enabled (x.) and > (y.) (etc...!!!) and ran it. Then it did indeed run, but all the > hyperlinked words I tried either failed to move (=took me back to the > same page) or took me back to Ndx and not to the next relevant page, > as I understand you to say. A glance at the source of a few pages > confirms this (but i've only looked at a few.) So I guess it's not > building its word lists right? > > I bethought myself to take the precaution of duplicating the folder: > "/Applications/j602/help/" before letting your app save back the > files. Maybe you might warn the user more explicitly: "we are about to > overwrite the contents of "/Applications/j602/help/" -- go and > duplicate that folder now." > > As to what words to hyperlink, the words it chooses now seem good, > though whether I'd think so after using it a lot I can't say. I'd find > it straightforward though to edit a separate script of the words > chosen (the app might write one out) -- or edit a stub script which > originally looks like this: > > INCLUDETHESEWORDS=: 0 : 0 > myword > yourword > etc > > EXCLUDETHESEWORDS=: 0 : 0 > word > memory > Linux > etc > ) > > BTW same-page links don't do a lot in my browser: they behave like > no-ops (unless the next word is off the screen) and I have to use Find > to look for the last occurrence of a word like "icon" before I see a > link that goes anywhere. I suggest that *all* hyperlinked words on a > given page take you to the next relevant page, and that the user > wanting all occurrences of "icon" (say) on a given page should use > Find. Should simplify the app too. > > Having experience in generating HTML in APL, and needing the practice > before I start porting my existing APL apps to J to run on the Mac, > let me volunteer to help get this app up-to-date. I'll need to pester > you with questions about your code (maybe off-list). Perhaps we might > co-work the wiki page > http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/DonGuinn/AddHelpLinks.ijs ? > > Ian > > > On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 4:03 AM, Don Guinn <[email protected]> wrote: > > Several years ago I got tired of going to the J help cross reference, > going > > to a referenced page, then having to go back to the cross reference to > find > > other references. So I wrote a script that made words listed in the cross > > reference into links in every help page where they occur. The links links > to > > the next occurrence of the word in help, whether it is later in the same > > page or on another page. The last one found links back to the word in the > > cross reference. > > > > I found it speeds up navigating through J help. I think it needs a better > > way to choose words to link, but the cross reference was easy to use for > > that purpose. If people are interested in this then a better way to > choose > > words can be made. > > > > I put this script at > > http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/DonGuinn/AddHelpLinks.ijs to avoid > attaching > > the file to this note. I wrote this a long time ago, so it uses x. and y. > > instead of x and y, but it still works if you enable x. and y. names. > Also, > > I still have lots of trouble navigating in the J wiki, so it looks like a > > file to be viewed instead of one to download. > > > > The script runs when loaded. It pops up a few messages telling you what > it > > is doing and before it writes anything to the help files it asks you if > you > > want to proceed. At this point it has completed all processing and all > left > > to do is write out the files. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
