README
1Welcome to SDF (Simple Document Format) 2.001beta1
2==================================================
3
4What is SDF?
5------------
6
7SDF (Simple Document Format) is a freely available document development
8system which generates high quality outputs in a variety of formats
9from a single source. The output formats supported include
10PostScript(tm), PDF, HTML, plain text, POD, man pages, LaTeX,
11MIF, SGML, Windows(tm) help, RTF, MIMS F6 help and MIMS HTX help.
12If the idea of specifying documents in a logical manner via a
13simple markup language sounds appealing, SDF may be useful to you.
14
15SDF documents are simple to create and maintain, minimising the time
16spent on documentation. In particular, SDF directly supports the
17creation and maintenance of large, on-line documentation systems
18(including intranets) via centralised hypertext management and
19rule-based hypertext generation. As well as normal documents,
20SDF is useful for:
21
22* user manuals (paper-based and online)
23* online document catalogs
24* Perl module documentation
25* Delphi(tm) component documentation
26* source code listings (pretty printing most languages).
27
28SDF is also good for literate programming, i.e. documentation can
29be embedded in the comments of most programming languages and can be
30selectively extracted. The embedded documentation can be in any
31markup language you like, although there are advantages to using
32SDF's markup language.
33
34SDF is freely available for commercial and non-commercial use.
35See the LICENSE file for details.
36
37Requirements
38------------
39
40SDF has been completely developed in Perl, a popular and highly
41portable scripting language. Perl 5.004 or later is recommended,
42although SDF will probably run on earlier versions of Perl 5.
43
44To generate PostScript, SDF requires one of the following:
45
46* the freely available pod2ps program
47* the freely available SGML-Tools and LaTeX packages
48* FrameMaker 5.x or later
49* a word processor which can import RTF.
50
51Earlier versions of FrameMaker will generally work, but I don't
52explicitly support them.
53
54To generate PDF, Adobe's Acrobat is recommended.
55
56To generate Windows help, a help compiler (e.g. hcp.exe) is required.
57
58
59Installation
60------------
61
62Installation instructions are provided in the INSTALL file.
63These instructions are also provided in the "SDF User Guide"
64(http://www.mincom.com/mtr/sdf/user/in_insta.html).
65
66
67Further Information
68-------------------
69
70For the latest information and further details on SDF, see the
71SDF home page (http://www.mincom.com/mtr/sdf/).
72
73The following mailing lists are available:
74
75* sdf-users@mincom.com - for general questions
76* sdf-bugs@mincom.com - for reporting bugs and fixes.
77
78To subscribe to these lists, send email to
79sdf-users-request@mincom.com and/or
80sdf-bugs-request@mincom.com for instructions on
81using factotum, the majordomo variant that manages these lists.
82In short, send email to factotum@mincom.com with a
83message body of "subscribe sdf-users" or "subscribe sdf-bugs".
84
85Share and enjoy,
86Ian Clatworthy
87ianc@mincom.com
8827-Oct-98
89