This chapter describes what Hyperbole is, lists some of its potential applications, explains how to subscribe to its mail lists, and then summarizes the structure of the rest of the manual.
A Hyperbole user works with buttons embedded within textual documents; he may create, modify, move or delete buttons. Each button performs a specific action, such as linking to a file or executing a shell command.
There are three categories of Hyperbole buttons:
Explicit Hyperbole buttons may be embedded within any type of text file. Implicit buttons may be recognized anywhere within a text file, depending on the implicit button types that are available. All global buttons are stored in a single location and activated by entering their names, rather than by direct selection, the means used to activate explicit and implicit buttons.
To summarize:
Button Category Active Within Activation Means Managed By ======================================================================== Explicit a single document direct selection Hyperbole Global any document specifying its name Hyperbole Implicit a matching context direct selection other tools ========================================================================
Hyperbole buttons may be clicked upon with a mouse to activate them or to describe their actions. Thus, a user can always check how a button will act before activating it. Buttons may also be activated from a keyboard. (In fact, virtually all Hyperbole operations, including menu usage, may be performed from any standard character terminal interface, so one need not be anchored to a workstation all day). See section 4 Smart Keys.
Hyperbole does not enforce any particular hypertext or information management model, but instead allows you to organize your information in large or small chunks as you see fit. The Hyperbole outliner organizes information hierarchies which may also contain links to external information sources.
Some of Hyperbole's most important features include:
Typical Hyperbole applications include:
If you maintain or use Hyperbole, you should consider joining one of the two Hyperbole interest mailing lists. See section 5 Menus, and the description of the the Msg/ menu item, for a convenient means of joining and mailing to these lists.
There are several Hyperbole-related mail addresses. Learn what each is for before you mail to any of them.
<hyperbole-request@hub.ucsb.edu> <hyperbole-announce-request@hub.ucsb.edu>
All mail concerning administration of the Hyperbole mailing lists should be sent to the appropriate one of these addresses. That includes addition, change, or deletion requests. Don't consider sending such a request to a Hyperbole mail list or people will wonder why you don't know that all Internet mail lists have a -request address for administrative requests. Use the following formats on your subject line to execute requests, where you substitute your own values for the <> delimited items. Subject: Subscribe '<' <user@domain> '>' (<your name>). Subject: Unsubscribe '<' <user@domain> '>'. To change your address, you must unsubscribe your old address in one message and then subscribe your new address in another message. For example: To: hyperbole-announce-request@hub.ucsb.edu Subject: Unsubscribe <joe@any.com>. To: hyperbole-announce-request@hub.ucsb.edu Subject: Subscribe <joe@any.com> (Joe Williams).
There are two Hyperbole-related mail lists. Subscribe to one or the other, not to both.
<hyperbole@hub.ucsb.edu>
Mail list for discussion of all Hyperbole issues. Bug reports and
suggestions may also be sent here.
Always use your Subject and/or Summary: lines to state the position that
your message takes on the topic that it addresses.
For example, send:
Subject: Basic bug in top-level minibuffer menu.
rather than:
Subject: Hyperbole bug.
Statements end with periods, questions with question marks (typically),
and high energy, high impact declarations with exclamation points. This
simple rule makes all e-mail communication much easier for recipients to
handle appropriately.
If you ask a question, your subject line should end with a ?,
e.g. "Subject: How can man page SEE ALSOs be made implicit buttons?" A
"Subject: Re: How can ..." then indicates an answer to the question.
Question messages should normally include your Hyperbole and Emacs
version numbers and clearly explain your problem and surrounding issues.
Otherwise, you will simply waste the time of those who may want to help
you. (Your top-level Hyperbole menu shows its version number and {M-x
emacs-version RET} gives the other.)
If you ask questions, you should consider adding to the discussion by
telling people the kinds of work you are doing or contemplating doing
with Hyperbole. In this way, the list will not be overwhelmed by
messages that ask for, but provide no information.
<hyperbole-announce@hub.ucsb.edu>
Those who don't want to participate in the discussion but want to hear about bug fixes and new releases of Hyperbole should subscribe to this list. Anyone on the `hyperbole' list is automatically on this one too, so there is no need to subscribe to this one in that case. This list is for official fixes and announcements so don't send your own fixes here. Send them to `hyperbole' instead.
Remember that the `DEMO' file included in the Hyperbole distribution demonstrates many of Hyperbole's standard facilities, (@xref{Top, Preface}) for more details.
See section A Glossary, for definitions of Hyperbole terms for quick reference, so in some cases terms are not precisely defined within the text. Be sure to reference the glossary if a term is unclear to you. Although you need not have a keen understanding of all of these terms, a quick scan of the Glossary should help throughout Hyperbole use.
If you have a question, feature suggestion or bug report on Hyperbole, follow the instructions given in section D Suggestion or Bug Reporting. A few commonly asked questions are answered in the manual, section E Questions and Answers. If you are interested in classic articles on hypertext, section G References.
See section 2 Installation, for explanations of how to obtain, install, configure and load Hyperbole for use.
See section 3 Buttons, for an overview of Hyperbole buttons and how to use them.
See section 4 Smart Keys, for an explanation of the innovative, context-sensitive mouse and keyboard Action and Assist Keys offered by Hyperbole. See section B Smart Key Reference, for a complete reference on what the Action and Assist Keys do in each particular context that they recognize.
(Keep in mind as you read about how to use Hyperbole that in many cases, it provides a number of overlapping interaction methods are provided to support different work styles and hardware limitations. You need learn only one with which you can become comfortable, in such instances.)
See section 5 Menus, for summaries of Hyperbole menu commands and how to use the minibuffer-based menus that work on dumb terminals.
See section 6 Entering Arguments, for special support that Hyperbole provides for entering arguments when prompted for them.
See section 7 Outliner, for concept and usage information on the autonumbered, hypertextual outliner. A full summary of the outliner commands that are bound to keys may be found in section C Outliner Keys.
See section 8 Rolodex, for concept and usage information on the rapid lookup, hierarchical, free text record management system included with Hyperbole.
See section 9 Window Configurations, for instructions on how to save and restore the set of buffers and windows that appear with a frame. This feature lets you switch among working contexts easily, even on a dumb terminal. Such configurations only last throughout your current editor session.
Developers comfortable with Emacs Lisp will want to continue on through to, section 10 Developing with Hyperbole.
See section F Future Work, for future directions in Hyperbole's evolution.
Hyperbole must be installed at your site before you can use it. The following sections explain how to obtain, install and configure Hyperbole for use.
If you want to customize the basic Hyperbole initialization sequence for yourself rather than the users at your site, you should make a personal copy of the `hsite.el' file, modify it the way you want, and then load it. (If you are familiar with Emacs Lisp, section 10.1 Hook Variables.)
Hyperbole is actually part of an integrated tool framework that we have developed called InfoDock. InfoDock provides a modern user interface on top of Emacs, information management, and powerful software development tools, all in one package. Hyperbole or InfoDock can be obtained via anonymous ftp on the Internet from:
`ftp://ftp.cs.uiuc.edu/pub/xemacs/infodock'.
Here are detailed instructions for downloading and unpacking Hyperbole.
Move to a directory below which you want the `hyperbole' directory to be created. Unpacking the Hyperbole archive will create the `hyperbole' directory and will place all of the files below it.
cd <LOCAL-EMACS-LISP-DIR>
Ftp to ftp.cs.uiuc.edu (Internet Host ID = 128.174.252.1):
prompt> ftp ftp.cs.uiuc.edu
Login as anonymous with your own <user-id>@<site-name> as a password.
Name (ftp.cs.uiuc.edu): anonymous
331 Guest login ok, send EMAIL address (e.g. user@host.domain)
as password.
Password:
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
Move to the Hyperbole directory:
ftp> cd pub/xemacs/infodock
Set your transfer mode to binary:
ftp> bin 200 Type set to I.
Turn off prompting:
ftp> prompt Interactive mode off.
Retrieve just the Hyperbole archive and any diff-based patches (there may not be any patches):
ftp> mget hyperbole* ftp> mget hdiff*
Close the ftp connection:
ftp> quit 221 Goodbye.
Unpack the tar archive using the GNU version of the zcat program,
sometimes called gzcat or the gunzip program:
zcat hyperbole*tar.gz | tar xvf - or gunzip hyperbole*tar.gz; tar xvf hyperbole*tar
Apply any patches you retrieved:
cd hyperbole; patch < <patch-file>
The following explains how to Use the Hyperbole `Makefile' to compile any needed code, to generate the `hsite.el' file used for site-specific Hyperbole customization, and to produce printable documentation.
Edit the line near the top of `Makefile' that represents the emacs version that you use, so that it corresponds to the emacs executable name used on your system. Then immediatly below there, set the EMACS variable to the variable name for the emacs that you will use to compile the Hyperbole Lisp files.
You may also have to set the SITE-PRELOADS variable defined further down in the file; follow the instructions that precede the SITE-PRELOADS = line. Make these changes now and save the `Makefile'.
The following instructions use the term `<HYPERBOLE-DIR>/' to refer to your `hyperbole/' directory, so substitute your own value.
To install Hyperbole for use with InfoDock, XEmacs, GNU Emacs or Epoch, from a shell:
cd <HYPERBOLE-DIR>; make
All of the .elc compiled Lisp files are already built for XEmacs and V19, so this build will finish very quickly. If you really want to rebuild all of the .elc files, use:
cd <HYPERBOLE-DIR>; make all-elc
To produce the Postscript version of the Hyperbole manual, you must have the TeX formatter on your system:
cd <HYPERBOLE-DIR>; make ps
To install Hyperbole for use with GNU Emacs V18 or Epoch:
cd <HYPERBOLE-DIR>; make all-elc-v18
This will produce a complete set of Emacs V18 .elc files.
You may want to explore the Hyperbole configuration options before installing it. See section 2.4 Configuring. If you just want to get up and running quickly, however, there is no need to configure anything, just follow these instructions to install Hyperbole.
Add the following lines to a site initialization file such as `site-start.el' to set up so that all users have Hyperbole loaded for them when they run Emacs. Otherwise, each user will have to add these lines to his own `~/.emacs' initialization file.
To autoload Hyperbole so that it loads only when needed:
(defvar hyperb:dir "<HYPERBOLE-DIR>/") "Directory where the Hyperbole executable code is kept. It must end with a directory separator character.") (load (expand-file-name "hversion" hyperb:dir)) (load (expand-file-name "hyperbole" hyperb:dir))
This establishes a few key bindings and sets up Hyperbole to automatically load whenever you activate its menu. If you would rather have the whole Hyperbole system loaded when you start up so that you can always use the Smart Keys and other facilities, add the additional line:
(require 'hsite)
If you use mouse keys, be sure to add the above lines after any setup of mouse key bindings, to ensure that Hyperbole's mouse keys are properly initialized. See section 4 Smart Keys, for further details. If you use any Hyperbole mail or news support, section 3.7.6 Buttons in Mail, be certain to perform all of your personal mail/news initializations before the point at which you load Hyperbole. Otherwise, the mail/news support may not be configured properly. For example, if you use the Emacs add-on Supercite package, its setup should come before Hyperbole initialization.
The Hyperbole Manual is included in the distribution in two forms:
`man/hyperbole.info' - online version `man/hyperbole.texi' - source form
To add pointers to the Info version of the Hyperbole manual within your Info directory, follow these instructions. If Info-directory-list is bound as a variable within your Emacs (all versions except V18 and Epoch), then you can simply set it so that <HYPERBOLE-DIR> is an element in the list:
(setq Info-directory-list (cons "<HYPERBOLE-DIR>" Info-directory-list))
Otherwise, from a shell:
cd to the directory given by your Info-directory variable rm hyperbole.info*; cp <HYPERBOLE-DIR>/man/hyperbole.info* .
For all versions of Emacs, add an Info menu entry for the Hyperbole manual in your Info `dir' file (the `*' should be placed in the first column of the file):
* Hyperbole:: GNU Emacs-based everyday information management system.
Use {C-h h d d} for a demonstration. Includes context-sensitive
mouse and keyboard support, a powerful rolodex, an autonumbered
outliner with hyperlink anchors for each outline cell, and extensible
hypertext facilities including hyper-links in mail and news messages.
That's all there is to the installation. Once Hyperbole has been installed for use at your site, you can invoke it with {C-h h} or {M-x hyperbole RET} to bring up the Hyperbole main menu in the minibuffer window.
There are many Hyperbole configuration options that may be changed by editing the `hyperbole.el' and `hsite.el' files in the `hyperbole/' directory. The following sections discuss the configuration options most likely to be of interest to users.
When given a file name, Hyperbole will by default display the file for editing within an Emacs buffer. The hpath:display-alist variable can be used to specify file name patterns, such as matching suffixes, which will invoke a special Emacs Lisp function to display any matching files within Emacs. This can be used to format raw data files for convenient display.
Configure the hpath:display-alist variable in `hsite.el'. Its value is an association list whose elements are (<file-name-regular-expression> . <function-of-one-arg>) pairs. Any path whose name matches a <file-name-regular-expression> will be displayed by calling the associated <function-of-one-arg> with the file name as the argument.
See section 2.4.2 External Viewers, for instructions on associating file names with external, window-system specific viewers.
If you will be using Hyperbole under a window system, you may want to configure the hpath:find-alist variable in `hsite.el' to support hyperlinks which open files using non-Emacs tools, e.g. a fax reader or a bitmap viewer.
The value of hpath:find-alist is determined when Hyperbole is
initialized based upon the current window system and the version of
Emacs in use. The value is an association list whose elements are
(<file-name-regular-expression> . <viewer-program>) pairs. Any path
whose name matches a <file-name-regular-expression> will be
displayed using the corresponding viewer-program. If a <viewer-program>
entry contains a %s string, the filename to display will be
substituted at that point within the string. Otherwise, the filename
will be appended to the <viewer-program> entry. See the "x-suffixes"
and "nextstep-suffixes" settings within the definition of
hpath:find-alist as examples.
Another variable to consider modifying in the `hsite.el' file is hpath:variables. This variable consists of a list of Emacs Lisp variable names, each of which may have a pathname or a list of pathnames as a value. Whenever a Hyperbole file or directory link button is created, its pathname is compared against the values in hpath:variables. The first match found, if any, is selected and its associated variable name is substituted into the link pathname, in place of its literal value. When the link is resolved (the button is activated), Hyperbole replaces each variable with the first matching value from this list. (Environment variables are also replaced whenever link paths are resolved.
This permits sharing of links over wide areas, where the variable values may differ between link creator and link activator. The entire process is wholly transparent to the user; it is explained here simply to help you in deciding whether or not to modify the value of hpath:variables.
When Hyperbole is run under a window system together with Emacs 19,
XEmacs or Epoch, it automatically highlights any explicit buttons in
a buffer and makes them flash when selected. The main setting
you may want change is the selection of a color (or style) for button
highlighting and button flashing. See the `hui-*-b*.el' files for
lists of potential colors and the code which supports this behavior. A
call to (hproperty:cycle-but-color) within a Hyperbole
initialization sequence in the `hsite.el' file changes the color
used to highlight and flash explicit buttons.
Additionally, under XEmacs and Emacs 19, if hproperty:but-emphasize-p
is set to t in `hsite.el', then whenever the mouse pointer
moves over an explicit button, it will be emphasized in a different
color or style. This emphasis is in addition to any non-mouse-sensitive
button highlighting.
If you read in a file with explicit buttons before you load Hyperbole,
these buttons won't be highlighted. Load Hyperbole and then use
M-x hproperty:but-create RET to highlight the buttons in
the current buffer.
This chapter explains the user-level notion of Hyperbole buttons. Hyperbole buttons that are stored in files persist across Emacs sessions, so they provide a convenient means of linking from one information source to another.
Hyperbole creates and manages explicit buttons which look like
this <(fake button)> to a Hyperbole user. They are quickly
recognizable, yet relatively non-distracting as one scans the text in
which they are embedded. The text between the <( and
)> delimiters is called the button label. Spacing between
words within a button label is irrelevant to Hyperbole, so button labels
may wrap across several lines without causing a problem.
Hyperbole stores the button data that gives an explicit button its behavior, separately from the button label, in a file named `.hypb' within the same directory as the file in which the button is created. Thus, all files in the same directory share a common button data file. Button data is comprised of individual button attribute values. A user never sees this data in its raw form but may see a formatted version by asking for help on a button.
Explicit buttons may be freely moved about within the buffer in which they are created. (No present support exists for moving buttons between buffers). A single button may also appear multiple times within the same buffer; one simply copies the button label with its delimiters to a new location in such cases.
Each explicit button is assigned an action type which determines the actions that it performs. Link action types connect buttons to particular types of referents. Activation of such buttons then displays the referents.
Hyperbole does not manage referent data; this is left to the applications that generate the data. This means that Hyperbole provides in-place linking and does not require reformatting of data to integrate it with a Hyperbole framework.
Access to explicit buttons depends upon the information on your screen since they are embedded within particular buffers. Sometimes it is useful to activate buttons without regard to the information with which you are presently working. In such instances, you use global buttons, which are simply explicit buttons which may be activated or otherwise operated upon by entering their labels when they are prompted for, rather than selecting the buttons within a buffer.
If you want a permanent link to a file section that you can follow at
any time, you can use a global button. Or what about an Emacs keyboard
macro that you use frequently? Create an exec-kbd-macro button
with an easy to type name and then you can easily activate it whenever
the need arises.
Implicit buttons are those defined by the natural structure of a document. They are identified by contextual patterns which limit the locations or states in which they can appear. Their behavior is determined by one or more actions which they trigger when activated. An action is derived from either a Hyperbole action type specification, section 3.4 Action Types, or an Emacs Lisp function. Implicit button types may use the same action types that explicit buttons do.
Implicit buttons never have any button data associated with them. They are recognized in context based on predicate matches defined within implicit button types. For example, Hyperbole recognizes file names enclosed in double quotes and can quickly display their associated files in response to simple mouse clicks.
See `hibtypes.el' for complete examples. Standard implicit button types include (in alphabetical order):
annot-bib
completion
dir-summary
doc-id
elisp-compiler-msg
debugger-source
grep-msg
hyp-address
actypes::hyp-config.
hyp-source
Info-node
kbd-key
klink
actypes::link-to-kotl for valid link
specifiers.
mail-address
man-apropos
UNIX manual
man pages
man apropos
patch-msg
patch
program. Patch applies diffs to source code.
pathname
hpath:at-p function documentation for possible delimiters.
See hpath:suffixes variable documentation for suffixes that are
added to or removed from pathname when searching for a valid match.
See hpath:find function documentation and
hpath:display-alist and hpath:find-alist variable
documentation for special file display options.
rfc
rfc-toc
text-toc
www-url
The Hyperbole Smart Keys offer extensive additional context-sensitive point-and-click type behavior beyond these standard implicit button types. See section 4 Smart Keys.
Action types provide action procedures that specify button behavior. The arguments needed by an action type are prompted for at button creation time. When a button is activated, the stored arguments are fed to the action type's action body to achieve the desired result. Hyperbole handles all of this transparently.
Standard action types in alphabetical order include:
annot-bib
completion
eval-elisp
exec-kbd-macro
exec-shell-cmd
exec-window-cmd
hyp-config
hyp-request
hyp-source
kbd-key
link-to-buffer-tmp
link-to-directory
link-to-doc
link-to-ebut
link-to-elisp-doc
link-to-file
link-to-file-line
link-to-kcell
link-to-kotl
< pathname [, cell-ref] > < [-!&] pathname > < @ cell-ref >See documentation for
kcell:ref-to-id for valid cell-ref formats.
link-to-Info-node
link-to-mail
link-to-regexp-match
link-to-rfc
link-to-string-match
man-show
<command>(<section>).
rfc-toc
text-toc
www-url
The use of action types provides a convenient way of specifying button behavior without the need to know how to program. Expert users who are familiar with Emacs Lisp, however, may find that they often want to tailor button actions in a variety of ways not easily captured within a type system. In such cases, hui:ebut-prompt-for-action should be set non-nil. This will cause Hyperbole to prompt for an action to override the button's action type at each explicit button creation. For those cases where the action type is sufficient, a nil value should be entered for the action. An action may be any Lisp form that may be evaluated.
Explicit buttons always take precedence over implicit buttons. Thus, if a button selection is made which falls within both an explicit and implicit button, only the explicit button will be selected. Explicit button labels are not allowed to overlap; Hyperbole's behavior in such cases is undefined.
If there is no explicit button at point during a selection request, then each implicit button type predicate is tested in turn until one returns non-nil or all are exhausted. Since two implicit button types may have overlapping domains (those contexts in which their predicates are true), only the first matching type is used. The type predicates are tested in reverse order of definition, i.e. most recently entered types are tested first, so that personal types defined after standard system types take precedence. It is important to keep this order in mind when defining new implicit button types. By making their match predicates as specific as possible, one can minimize any overlapping of implicit button type domains.
Once a type name is defined, its precedence relative to other types remains the same even if you redefine the body of the type, as long as you don't change its name. This allows incremental modifications to types without having to worry about shifts in type precedence. See section 10.2 Creating Types, for information on how to develop or modify types.
It is often convenient to create lists of buttons that can be used as menus to provide centralized access to distributed information pools or for other purposes. These files can serve as useful roadmaps to help efficiently guide a user through both unfamiliar and highly familiar information spaces. Files that are created specifically for this purpose, we call button files.
The Hyperbole menu system provides quick access to two types of these button files: personal and directory-specific, through the ButFile menu. (The variable, hbmap:filename, contains the base name of these standard button files. Its standard value is `HYPB'.)
A personal button file may serve as a user's own roadmap to frequently used resources. Selection of the ButFile/PersonalFile menu item displays this file for editing. The default personal button file is stored within the directory given by the hbmap:dir-user variable whose standard value is `~/.hyperb'. The standard Hyperbole configuration also appends all global buttons to the end of this file, one per line, as they are created. So you can edit or annotate them within the file.
A directory-specific button file may exist for each file system directory. Such files are useful for explaining the contents of directories and pointing readers to particular highlights within the directories. Selection of the ButFile/DirFile menu item displays the button file for the current directory; this provides an easy means of updating this file when working on a file within the same directory. If you want to view some other directory-specific button file, simply use the normal Emacs file finding commands.
One might suggest that menu quick access be provided for group-specific and site-specific button files. Instead, link buttons to such things should be placed at the top of your personal button file. This provides a more flexible means of quick access.
Explicit buttons are a fundamental building block for creating personal or organizational hypertext networks with Hyperbole. This section summarizes the user-level operations available for managing these buttons.
The most efficient way to create an explicit button interactively is to use the mouse Action Key to drag from a button source window to a window showing its link referent. More specifically, you should split your current Emacs frame into two windows: one which contains the point at which you want a button to be inserted and another which shows the point to which you want to link. Depress the mouse Action Key at the point at which the button should be inserted, drag to the other window and release it at the point of the link referent. The process becomes quite simple with a little practice. (See section 3.7.1.2 Creation Via Menus, for a more detailed explanation of the explicit button creation process.)
Hyperbole uses the link referent context to determine the type of link to make. If there are a few different types of links which are applicable from the context, you will be prompted with a list of the types. Simply use the Action Key or the first letter of the link type to select one of the type names and to finish the link creation. Hyperbole will then insert explicit button delimiters around the button label and will display a message in the minibuffer indicating both the button name and its action/link type.
If you run Emacs under a window system, you can emulate an Action Key
drag from the keyboard by: hitting {M-o}, the
hkey-operate command, at the button source location, moving
to the link destination, e.g. with {C-x o}, and then hitting
{M-o} again. This simulates a depress and then release of the
Action Key. {C-u M-o} emulates drags of the Assist Key.
This will not work when Hyperbole is run from a dumb terminal Emacs
session since drag actions are not supported without a window system.
You can alternatively use the Hyperbole menus to create explicit buttons. First, mark a short region of text in any fashion allowed by GNU Emacs and then select the Hyperbole menu item sequence, Ebut/Create. You will be prompted for the button's label with the marked region as the default. If you accept the default and enter the rest of the information you are prompted for, the button will be created within the current buffer and Hyperbole will surround the marked region with explicit button delimiters to indicate success.
If you do not mark a region before invoking the button create command, you will be prompted for both a label and a target buffer for the button and the delimited label text will be inserted into the target buffer after a successful button creation.
After Hyperbole has the button label and its target buffer, it will prompt you for an action type for the button. Use the {?} completion help key to see the available types. The type selected determines any following values for which you will be prompted.
If a previous button with the same label exists in the same buffer, Hyperbole will add an instance number to the label when it adds the delimiters so that the name is unique. Thus, you don't have to worry about accidental button name conflicts. If you want the same button to appear in multiple places within the buffer, just enter the label again and delimit it yourself. Hyperbole will interpret all occurrences of the same delimited label within a buffer as the same button.
If you create link buttons using the Hyperbole menus, the best technique
is to place on screen both the source buffer for the button and the
buffer to which it will link. Mark the region of text to use for your
button label, invoke the button create command from the menu, choose an
action type which begins with link-to- and then use the direct
selection techniques mentioned in section 6 Entering Arguments, to select
the link referent.
Once an explicit button has been created, its label text must be treated specially. Any inter-word spacing within the label may be freely changed, as may happen when a paragraph is refilled. But a special command must be invoked to rename it.
The rename command operates in two different ways. If point is within a button label when it is invoked, it will tell you to edit the button label and then invoke the rename command again. The second invocation will actually rename the button. If instead the command is originally invoked outside of any explicit button, it will prompt for the button label to replace and the label to replace it with and then will perform the rename. All occurrences of the same button in the buffer will be renamed, so you need locate only one occurrence of the button.
The rename command may be invoked from the Hyperbole menu via
Ebut/Rename. A faster method is to use a key bound to the
hui:ebut-rename command. Your site installation may include such
a key. {C-h w hui:ebut-rename RET} should show you any
key it is on. If no key binding has been established or if you prefer
one of your own, simply bind it within your `~/.emacs' file. We
recommend the {C-c C-r} key, as in: (global-set-key
"\C-c\C-r" 'hui:ebut-rename).
Ebut/Delete works similarly to the Rename command but deletes the selected button. The button's delimiters are removed to confirm the delete. If the delete command is invoked with a prefix argument, then both the button label and the delimiters are removed as confirmation.
Presently there is no way to recover a deleted button; it must be recreated. Therefore, the hui:ebut-delete-confirm-p variable is true by default, causing Hyperbole to require confirmation before interactively deleting explicit buttons. Set it to nil if you prefer no confirmation.
Ebut/Modify prompts you with each of the elements from the button's data list and allows you to modify each in turn.
There is a quicker way to modify explicit link buttons. Simply drag with the mouse Action Key from within the button label to a link destination in a different window, just as you would when creating a new button with a mouse drag. Remember that drags may also be emulated from the keyboard. See section 3.7.1 Creation.
The Ebut/Help menu can be used to summarize a single explicit button or all such buttons within a single buffer. The buttons summarized may then be activated directly from the summary.
Ebut/Help/BufferButs summarizes the explicit buttons in the order in which they appear in the buffer. Ebut/Help/CurrentBut summarizes only the button at point. Ebut/Help/OrderedButs summarizes the buttons in alphabetical order. All of these summary commands eliminate duplicate instances of buttons from their help displays.
Ebut/Search prompts for a search pattern and searches across all the locations in which you have previously created explicit buttons. It asks you whether to match to any part of a button label or only complete labels. It then displays a list of button matches with a single line of surrounding context from their sources. Any button in the match list may be activated as usual. An Action Key press on the surrounding context jumps to the associated source line or a press on the filename preceding the matches jumps to the file without selecting a particular line.
There are presently no user-level facilities for globally locating buttons created by others or for searching on particular button attributes.
Hyperbole allows the embedding of buttons within electronic mail
messages that are composed in Emacs with the standard (mail)
command, normally bound to {C-x m} or with other Emacs-based
mail composing functions. An enhanced mail reader can then be used
to activate the buttons within messages just like any other buttons.
Hyperbole automatically supports the following mail readers: Rmail, section `Rmail' in the GNU Emacs Manual, VM, section `Introduction' in the VM Manual, and PIEmail, and MH-e. Button inclusion and activation within USENET news articles is also supported in the same fashion via the GNUS news reader, section `Introduction' in the GNUS Manual, if available at your site. (The `hmail.el' file provides a generalized interface that can be used to hook in other mail or news readers if the necessary interface functions are written.)
All explicit buttons to be mailed must be created within the outgoing
message buffer. There is no present support for including text from
other buffers or files which contain explicit buttons, except for the
ability to yank the contents of a message being replied to, together
with all of its buttons, via the (mail-yank-original) command
bound to {C-c C-y}. From a user's perspective, buttons are
created in precisely the same way as in any other buffer. They also
appear just like any other buttons to both the message sender and the
reader who uses the Hyperbole enhanced readers. Button operation may be
tested any time before a message is sent. A person who does not use
Hyperbole enhanced mail readers can still send messages with embedded
buttons since mail composing is independent of any mail reader
choice.
Hyperbole buttons embedded within received mail messages act just like any other buttons. The mail does not contain any of the action type definitions used by the buttons, so the receiver must have these or she will receive an error when she activates the buttons. Buttons which appear in message Subject lines are copied to summary buffers whenever such summaries are generated. Thus, they may be activated from either the message or summary buffers.
Nothing bad will happen if a mail message with explicit buttons is sent to a non-Hyperbole user. The user will simply see the text of the message followed by a series of lines of button data at its end. Hyperbole mail users never see this data in its raw form.
In order to alert readers of your mail messages that you can utilize Hyperbole mail buttons, the system automatically inserts a comment into each mail message that you compose to announce this fact. The variable, smail:comment controls this behavior. See its documentation for technical details. By default, it produces a message of the form:
Comments: Hyperbole mail buttons accepted, vX.XX.
where the X's indicate your Hyperbole version number. You can cut this out of particular messages before you send them. If you don't want any message at all, add the following to your `~/.emacs' file before the point at which you load Hyperbole.
(setq smail:comment nil)
A final mail-related facility provided by Hyperbole is the ability to
save a pointer to a received mail message by creating an explicit button
with a link-to-mail action type. When prompted for the mail
message to link to, if you press the Action Key on an Rmail message, the
appropriate parameter will be copied to the argument prompt, as
described in section 6 Entering Arguments.
Explicit buttons may be embedded within outgoing USENET news articles and may be activated from news articles that are being read. This support is available for the GNUS news reader. It is enabled by default within `hsite.el' by autoloading the `hgnus.el' file.
All Hyperbole support should work just as it does when reading or sending mail. See section 3.7.6 Buttons in Mail. When reading news, buttons which appear in message Subject lines may be activated within the GNUS subject buffer as well as the article buffer. When posting news, the *post-news* buffer is used for outgoing news articles rather than the *mail* buffer.
Remember that the articles you post do not contain the action type definitions used by the buttons, so the receiver must have these or she will receive an error when he activates the buttons. You should also keep in mind that most USENET readers will not be using Hyperbole, so if they receive a news article containing explicit buttons, they will wonder what the button data at the end of the message is. You should therefore limit distribution of such messages. For example, if most people at your site read news with GNUS and use Hyperbole, it would be reasonable to embed buttons in postings to local newsgroups.
In order to alert readers of your postings that you can utilize Hyperbole mail buttons embedded within personal replies, the system automatically inserts the same comment that is included within mail messages to announce this fact. See section 3.7.6 Buttons in Mail, for details and an explanation of how to turn this feature off.
Hyperbole provides two special Smart Keys that perform context-sensitive operations, the Action Key and the Assist Key. By default, the Action Key is bound to your shift-middle mouse button (or shift-left on a 2-button mouse) and the Assist Key is bound to your shift-right mouse button, assuming Hyperbole is run under an external window system. (InfoDock users should use the middle mouse button as the Action Key, instead.)
Mouse configuration is automatic for InfoDock, XEmacs, and Epoch under
the X window system and for GNU Emacs versions 18 and 19 under X,
OpenWindows, NEXTSTEP, SunView and Apollo's Display Manager, assuming
your Emacs program has been built with support for any of these window
systems. The command, hmouse-shift-buttons, can be used to
select between shifted and unshifted Smart Mouse Keys.
By default (if hkey-init is set to t in `hsite.el'),
then {M-RET} may also be used as the Action Key and
{C-u M-RET} may be used as the Assist Key. In many
read-only modes like Dired and Rmail,
{RET} also functions as the Action Key. These key bindings allow
context sensitive operation from any keyboard.
If you prefer other key bindings, simply bind the commands
action-key and assist-key to keyboard keys.
hkey-either may be used instead if you prefer a single
key binding for both commands; a prefix argument then invokes
assist-key.
You may also bind action-mouse-key and assist-mouse-key
to mouse keys, as you like.
The Action Key generally selects entities, creates links and activates buttons. The Assist Key generally provides help, such as reporting on a button's attributes, or serves a complementary function to whatever the Action Key does within a context.
You can get a summary of what the Smart Keys do in all of their different contexts by pressing the Assist Key in the right corner (within the rightmost 3 characters) of a window modeline or by using the Hyperbole Doc/SmartKy menu entry.
The following table is an example of this summary. Much of the browsing power of Hyperbole comes from use of the Smart Keys, so you should spend some time practicing how to use them. This table may appear daunting at first, but as you practice and notice that the Smart Keys do just a few context-sensitive things per editor mode, you will find it easy to just point and click and let Hyperbole do the rest.
For extensive reference documentation on the Smart Keys, section B Smart Key Reference.
==============================================================================
Smart Keys
Context Action Key Assist Key
==============================================================================
Hyperbole
On a menu item Item is activated Item help
On an explicit button Button is activated Button help
Reading argument
1st press at an arg value Value copied to minibuffer <- same
2nd press at an arg value Value used as argument <- same
In minibuffer Minibuf arg is applied Completion help
On an implicit button Button is activated Button help
Within an outline cell Collapses and expands Shows tree props
Left of an outline cell Creates a klink Moves a tree
Wrolo Match Buffer Edits entries and mails to e-mail addresses
Mouse or Keyboard Display Control
Line end, not end of buffer
smart-scroll-proportional
= t (default) Makes curr line top line Bottom line
= nil Scrolls up a windowful Scrolls down
End of Any Help buffer Screen restored to previous state
Mouse-only Control
Modeline down & wind release Resize window height <- same
Drag from shared window side
or from left of scroll bar Resize window width <- same
Drag between windows Create/modify a link but Swap window buffers
Horizontal drag within window
Left to right Scroll to buffer end Split window across
Right to left Scroll to buffer begin Delete window
Vertical drag within window Split window sideways <- same
Diagonal drag within window Save ring screen-config Restore ring config
Click in modeline
Left window edge Bury buffer Unbury bottom buf
Right window edge Info Smart Key summary
Otherwise Action Key Hook Assist Key Hook
Special Modes
C/C++ Mode Jumps to id/include def Jumps to next def
Assembly Language Mode Jumps to id/include def Jumps to next def
Any Lisp mode Jumps to id def Jumps to next def
Emacs Lisp Compiler Error Jumps to def with error <- same
Grep or Occur match Jumps to match source line <- same
Multi-buffer occur match Jumps to match source line <- same
Outline Major/Minor Modes Collapses, expands, and moves outline entries
Man Apropos Displays man page entry <- same
Man Pages Follows cross refs, file refs and C code refs
Buffer Menu Saves, deletes and displays buffers
Emacs Info Reader
Menu Entry or Cross Ref Jumps to referent <- same
Up, Next or Prev Header Jumps to referent Jumps to prior node
File entry of Header Jumps to top node Jumps to (DIR) node
End of current node Jumps to next node Jumps to prev node
Anywhere else Scrolls up a windowful Scrolls down a wind
Subsystems
Calendar Scrolls or shows appts Scrolls/marks dates
Dired Mode Views and deletes files from directory listing
GNUS News Reader Toggles group subscriptions, gets new news,
and browses articles
Mail reader and Summaries Browses, deletes and expunges messages
OO-Browser Browses classes and elements
Tar Mode Views and edits files from tar archive files
Any other context (defaults) Hyperbole top menu Smart Key summary
==============================================================================
Note how the last line in the table explains the default behavior of the Smart Keys. That is what they do when they cannot find a context match at your current location. See the documentation for the variables action-key-default-function and assist-key-default-function for information on how to customize the behavior of the Smart Keys within default contexts.
A prime design criterion of Hyperbole's user interface is that one should be able to see what an operation will do before using it. The Assist Key shows you what a button or minibuffer menu item will do before you activate it. Hyperbole also shows the result of directly selecting an argument value with the mouse, to provide feedback as to whether the right item has been selected. A second click is necessary before an argument is accepted and processed.
When you use a mouse and you want to find out what either of the Smart Keys does within a context, depress the one you want to check on and hold it down, then press the other and release as you please. A help buffer will pop up explaining the actions that will be performed in that context, if any. A press of either Smart Key at the end of that help buffer will restore your display to its configuration prior to invoking help.
By default (if hkey-init is left set equal to t in
`hsite.el'), then {C-h A} will display this same
context-sensitive help for the Action Key while {C-u C-h
A} will display the help for the Assist Key. Note that
{C-h a} will perform a function unrelated to Hyperbole, so you
must press the shift key when you hit the A character.
When Hyperbole is installed, a key may be bound which allows you
to switch between the Smart Key mouse bindings and your prior ones.
C-h w hmouse-toggle-bindings RET should show you any key
which performs this command. If no key binding has been established or
if you prefer one of your own, simply select a key and bind it
within your `~/.emacs' file. For example, (global-set-key
"\C-ct" 'hmouse-toggle-bindings).
Under InfoDock, XEmacs, and Emacs 19, pulldown and popup menus are available to invoke Hyperbole commands, including those from the rolodex and the outliner. These menus operate like any other X window menus. Use the Quit command on the Hyperbole menubar menu to get rid of the menu if you do not need it. Invoking Hyperbole again will add the menu back to the menubar.
This section discusses only the specialized minibuffer menus that appear in the minibuffer window and that work with all Emacs versions. Minibuffer menu items may be selected from either the keyboard or via mouse clicks. When used with the keyboard, they provide rapid command access similar to key bindings.
The top level menu is invoked from a key given in your `hsite.el' file (by default, {C-h h}) or via an Action Key press in a location with no other action defined. The menu will appear in the minibuffer and should look mostly like so:
Hy4> Act Butfile/ Doc/ Ebut/ Gbut/ Hist Ibut/ Msg/ Otl/ Rolo/ Win/
The above menu items can be summarized as follows:
All menu items are selected via the first character of their names (letter case does not matter) or via a press of the Action Key. "/" at the end of an item name indicates that it brings up a sub-menu. A press of the Assist Key on an item displays help for the item, including the action that it performs.
While a menu is active, to re-activate the top-level Hyperbole menu, you must use {C-t}. This allows you to browse the submenus and then return to the top. You can quit without selecting an item by using {q}. {C-g} aborts whether you are at a menu prompt or any other Hyperbole prompt.
Many Hyperbole commands prompt you for arguments. The standard
Hyperbole user interface has an extensive core of argument types that it
recognizes. Whenever Hyperbole is prompting you for an argument, it
knows the type that it needs and provides some error checking to help
you get it right. More importantly, it allows you to press the Action
Key within an entity that you want to use as an argument and it will grab the
appropriate thing and show it to you at the input prompt within the
minibuffer. If you press the Action Key again at the same point (click
with a mouse) on the same thing again, it accepts the entity as the
argument and moves on. Thus, a double click registers a desired
argument. Double-quoted strings, pathnames, mail messages, Info nodes,
dired listings, buffers, numbers, completion items and so forth are all
recognized at appropriate times. All of the argument types mentioned in
the documentation for the Emacs Lisp (interactive) function are
recognized. Experiment a little and you will quickly get used to this
direct selection technique.
Wherever possible, standard Emacs completion is offered, see section `Completion' in the Gnu Emacs Manual. Remember to use {?} to see what your possibilities for an argument are. Once you have a list of possible completions on screen, you can double click the Action Key on any one to enter it as the argument.
The Hyperbole outliner, also known as the Koutliner (pronounced Kay-outliner), produces structured, autonumbered documents composed of hierarchies of cells. Each cell has two identifiers, a relative identifier indicating its present position within the outline and a permanent identifier called an idstamp, suitable for use within hyperlink references to the cell. The idstamp is typically not displayed but is available when needed. See section 7.3 Autonumbering.
Cells also store their time of creation and the user who created the cell. User-defined attributes may also be added to cells. See section 7.8 Cell Attributes.
The outliner works only under GNU Emacs version 19 or higher, XEmacs
version 19.9 or higher or under InfoDock. You can tell whether you are
running a version of Emacs which supports the outliner by hitting
{C-h h} to display the Hyperbole menu. If you see an
Otl/ entry in the menu, then the outliner is available.
Otherwise, the outliner does not work with your version of Emacs, so
this section of the manual will not be of interest to you. (The same is
true of the Hyperbole/Outline pulldown menu; if it appears, the outliner
is available for use.)
This chapter expands on the information given in `EXAMPLE.kotl' file included with Hyperbole. Use {C-h h o e} to display that file. It is an actual outline file that explains major outliner operations. You can test out the viewing and motion commands with this file. If you want to experiment with editing operations, use {C-x C-w} to write the outline to a temporary file such as, `/tmp/e.kotl', and then use {C-x C-q} to make the outline editable.
See section C Outliner Keys, for a full summary of the key bindings and commands available in the outliner.
The Otl/ menu entry on the Hyperbole top-level menu provides access to a number of major outliner commands:
Menu Item Command Description ==================================================================== All kotl-mode:show-all Expand all cells Blanks kvspec:toggle-blank-lines Toggle blank lines on or off Create kfile:find Edit or create an outline Downto kotl-mode:hide-sublevels Hide cells deeper than a level Examp <sample outliner file> Show self-descriptive example Hide kotl-mode:hide-tree Hide tree with root at point Info <outliner documentation> Show outliner manual section Kill kotl-mode:kill-tree Kill the current tree Link klink:create Create a link to another cell Overvw kotl-mode:overview Show first line of each cell Show kotl-mode:show-tree Show tree with root at point Top kotl-mode:top-cells Collapse to top-level cells Vspec kvspec:activate Set a view specification ====================================================================
In addition to the Otl/Create menu item, you can create and experiment with outline files simply by finding a file, {C-x C-f} with a `.kotl' suffix. `.kot' will also work for DOS or Windows-impaired users.
When a new koutline is created, an invisible root cell is created. Its permanent and relative ids are both 0, and it is considered to be at level 0 in the outline. All visible cells in the outline are at level 1 or deeper, and thus are descendants of this root cell. Some koutliner commands prompt for cell numbers as arguments. An argument of 0 makes commands operate upon the entire outline.
An initial level 1 cell is also created to make it easy to start entering text in the outline. A koutline always has at least one visible cell in it.
See section 7.3 Autonumbering, which explains how cells are labeled according to their respective levels in the outline and how these labels are updated as the structure of the outline changes.
See section 7.5.1 Adding and Killing, which explains how to add new cells to or remove cells from a koutline. As you do this, or as you promote or demote cells within the outline, the labels preceding the contents of each cell automatically update to reflect the new structure. These labels are also known as autonumbers and as relative ids because they change as the structure changes.
The outline structure is shown by these labels and by the indentation of each outline level. Normally, each deeper level is indented another three characters, to reflect the nesting.
The default autonumbers are called alphanumeric labels because they alternate between using numbers and letters to distinguish each successive level. Each alphanumeric label uniquely identifies a cell's position in an outline, so that there is no need to scan back to prior cells to see what the current section number of an outline is. This is similar to a legal numbering scheme but without all the period characters between level numbers. As an example, 1b3 is equivalent to a legal label of 1.2.3. Both refer to the 3rd cell at level 3, below the 2nd child of the first cell at level 1. Said another way, this is the 3rd child of the 1st cell's 2nd child. In other words, it is easier to visualize hierarchies than to talk about them.
Alphanumeric labels are the default because they are shorter and easier to read aloud than equivalent legal ones. They also simplify distinguishing between even and odd level labels because of the alternating character set.
You can change the labeling scheme used in a particular outline with the command {C-c C-l}. A {?} then will show all of your options. Legal labels, partial alpha labels (single level autonumbering where only the last part of the level number is shown, as commonly seen in other outliner products), idstamps (permanent cell ids), and star outline level labels (Emacs asterisk-based outline labeling) are all available. Or you may choose to turn autonumbering off. Cells are still indented to reflect the outline structure whether or not labels are displayed.
A cell label is normally followed by two spaces, called the label separator, prior to the start of the cell contents. You can change the separator with for the current outline with {C-c M-l}. {C-u C-c M-l} will additionally change the default separator value used when new outlines are created (for the current session only). For example, use the value ". " to get a trailing period after each cell label. The separator must be at least two characters long but may be longer.
If you find a separator that you prefer for all outlines, change the separator setting permanently by adding the following line to your Emacs initialization file, `~/.emacs', substituting for `your-separator':
(setq kview:default-label-separator "your-separator")
Idstamps (permanent ids) are associated with each cell and can be used in hyperlinks that are maintained as cells are reordered in a file. See section 7.7 Links. Idstamps may also be displayed in place of the outline level relative ids. Use {C-c C-l id RET}.
An idstamp counter for each outline starts at 0 and is incremented by one each time a cell is added to the outline. This idstamp stays with the cell no matter where it is moved within the outline. If the cell is deleted, its idstamp is not reused.
The 0 idstamp is always assigned to the root node of the entire outline. This node is never visible within the outline, but is used so that the outline may be treated as a single tree when needed. Idstamps always begin with a 0, as in 012, to distinguish them from relative ids.
You edit text and move around in the Koutliner just as you would in any other Emacs buffer, except when you want to deal with the structural components of an outline. Within the contents of a cell, all of your standard editing keys should work properly. You can just type in text and the left and right margins of the lines will be maintained for you. See section 7.5.4 Filling, for the times when you need to refill a paragraph or to control when filling occurs.
Don't invoke editing commands with {M-x command-name RET} since the Koutliner uses special differently named commands made to act like the regular editing commands but which account for the structure and indentation in koutlines.
You can use the mouse to select parts of the contents of a single cell for editing. But don't drag across cell boundaries and then edit the selected region, since that can destroy the outline structure.
{C-j} adds a new cell as a successor sibling of the current cell, that is, the next cell at the same level as the current cell. If you enter a positive number as a prefix argument, that number of cells will be inserted, all at the same level. {C-u C-j} is handled specially. It adds a single cell as a child of the current cell. {C-c a} does the same thing. {C-c p} adds the cell as the successor of the current cell's parent.
{C-c C-k} kills the current cell and its entire subtree. {C-c k} kills the contents of a cell from point through the end of the cell; it does not remove the cell itself. {C-u C-c k} kills the entire contents of the cell regardless of the location of point. You may then yank the contents into another cell or another buffer with {C-y}.
Demotion is the act of moving a tree down one or more levels in the outline. The new tree will become either the successor or the first child of the cell which precedes it in the outline. Promotion is the inverse operation. Note that trees (cells and their entire substructure) are promoted and demoted, not individual cells.
Trees may be demoted or promoted by pressing {TAB} or {M-TAB} respectively, as in most outliners today. {M-0 TAB} and {M-0 M-TAB} demote and promote trees and additionally refill each cell that is not specially marked to prevent refilling. See section 7.5.4 Filling. A positive or negative prefix argument to these commands promotes or demotes the tree up to a maximum of the number of levels given by the argument. The outline may not support movement of the tree by the number of levels requested.
For maximum flexibility in rearranging outlines, there are commands that move or copy entire trees. Each of these commands prompts for the label of the root cell to move or copy and for second cell at the new location for the moved or copied tree. You can either accept the default provided, type in the cell label or when a mouse is available, simple double click with the Action Key on the contents of a cell. The Koutliner knows to use the cell's label in such cases.
In these following commands, words delimited with <> represent the arguments for which each command prompts. Note how the use of prefix arguments changes each command's behavior from insertion at the sibling level to insertion at the child level.
If you have mouse support under Hyperbole, you can move entire trees with mouse clicks. Simply click the Assist Key within the indentation to the left of a cell and you will be prompted for a tree to move. Double click the Action Key within the contents the root cell of the tree to move and then double click within the contents of the root cell of the tree you want it to follow as a sucessor.
Copying and moving only work within a single outline right now, so don't try to use them to move trees across different outline files. You can, however, copy an outline tree to a non-outline buffer with:
In addition to normal Emacs movement commands, you can move within a cell or from one cell or tree to another.
Filling is the process of extending lines that are shorter than the right margin and reducing lines which extend past the margin by moving words among the lines. Commands are provided to fill a paragraph within a cell or a whole cell, which may have multiple paragraphs.
{M-q} or {M-j} refills a paragraph within a cell so that its lines wrap within the current margin settings. {C-c M-q} or {C-c M-j} refills all paragraphs within a cell. {C-M-q} or {C-M-j} refills all cells within a tree. See your Emacs or InfoDock manual for information on how to set the left and right margins.
Set the variable, kotl-mode:refill-flag, to t if you want moving, promoting, demoting, exchanging, splitting and appending cells to also automatically refill each cell. Generally, this is not recommended since if you happen to move a cell that you have carefully formatted and forgot to give it a `no-fill' property, your formatting will be lost.
The Koutliner move and copy commands rearrange entire trees. The following two commands, in contrast, exchange the locations of two individual cells.
{C-c e} prompts for two cell addresses and exchanges the cell locations.
{C-c t} does not prompt. It exchanges the current and immediatly prior cell, regardless of their levels. If there is no prior cell it exchanges the current and next cell.
{M-0 C-c t} exchanges the cells in which point and mark fall. {C-c t} with a non-zero numeric prefix argument, N, moves the current tree past maximally the next N visible cells. If there are fewer visible, it makes the current cell the last cell in the outline.
You can split one cell into two adjacent sibling cells with {C-c s}. This leaves the cell contents preceding point in the current cell, minus any trailing whitespace, and moves the contents following point to a new sibling cell which is inserted into the outline. {C-u C-c s} instead adds the new cell as the first child of the original cell, rather than as its successor.
All cell attributes in the original cell are propagated to the new one, aside from the creation attributes and idstamp.
{C-c +} appends the contents of a specified cell to the end of another cell. It has no effect on cell attributes, except that if one cell has a `no-fill' attribute that prevents all but user requested filling of a cell, then the cell appended to inherits this property. This helps maintain any special formatting the appended text may have.
The elements of another buffer or file may be inserted into a koutline as a set of cells by using the {C-x i} command. When prompted, you may use a buffer name or file name from which to insert, though completion is provided only for file names.
The elements from the original buffer are converted into kcells and inserted as the successors of the current cell. If {C-u C-x i} is used, they are instead inserted as the inital children of the current cell.
See the documentation for the variables, kimport:mode-alist and kimport:suffix-alist, for information on mode and suffix-specific conversions performed on file elements before they are inserted. This same conversion process applies if you invoke {M-x kotl-mode RET} in a non-koutline buffer or if you perform a generic file import as described later in this section.
Use {M-x kotl-mode:insert-file-contents RET} to insert the entire contents of a file into the current cell at the location of point.
The outliner presently supports conversion of three types of files into koutline files. You can choose to import a file into an existing koutline, following the tree at point, or to create a new koutline of the imported file contents. {M-x kimport:file RET} will select the importation type based on the buffer or file name suffix of the file to import.
If you want to convert a buffer from some other mode into a koutline and then want to save the converted buffer back to its original file, thereby replacing the original format, then use {M-x kotl-mode RET} to convert the buffer into a koutline. Remember that you will lose the old format of the buffer when you do this.
Use one of the following commands if you really need explicit control over the type of importation used on some text. With these commands, your original file remains intact.
Use {M-x kimport:text RET} and you will be prompted for a text buffer or file to import and the new koutline buffer or file to create from its text. It will also import the contents, attributes and level structure of cells from a koutline.
Star outlines are standard Emacs outlines where each entry begins with one or more asterisk characters. Use {M-x kimport:star-outline RET} and you will be prompted for the star outline buffer or file to import and the new koutline buffer or file to create.
(Skip this if you are unfamiliar with the Augment system.) Files exported from the Augment system as text often have alphanumeric statement identifiers on the right side. You can import such files while maintaining there outline structure. Use {M-x kimport:aug-post-outline RET} and you will be prompted for the Augment buffer or file to import and the koutline to create.
The Koutliner has very flexible viewing facilities to allow you to effectively browse and study large amounts of material.
Individual cells, branches, or particular levels in the outline may be hidden or shown. These commands work even when an outline buffer is read-only, e.g. when its file is not checked out of a version control system yet, so that you can get effective views of an outline without editing it. Some of these commands affect the current view spec, section 7.6.2 View Specs.
A click or a press of the Action Key within a cell's body, but not on a Hyperbole button, toggles between hiding and showing the tree rooted at point. Try it with either your mouse or with {M-RET}.
View specifications (view specs, for short) are short codes used
to control the view of a koutline. The view specs in effect for an
outline are always displayed in the modeline of the outline's window,
following the outline buffer name, unless the variable,
kvspec:string, has been set to nil to disable view spec
modeline display. The modeline display appears as <|viewspec> so that
you can easily pick them out. The | (pipe character) is also used in
links that specify view specs to indicate the start of a view spec
sequence. See section 7.7 Links.
The current view spec is saved whenever the outline is saved. The next time the outline is read in, this will be the initial view.
The rest of this section documents the the view spec characters that are presently supported and explains how to invoke a view spec. There is no user-level way to add your own view spec characters, so all character codes are reserved for future use.
{C-c C-v} prompts for a new view spec setting in which the following codes are valid. Any invalid characters in a view spec are ignored. Characters are evaluated in an order meant to do the right thing, even when you use conflicting view spec characters. The standard initial view spec is <|ben>.
As a test, use {C-h h o e} to display the example koutline. Then use {C-c C-v} to set a view spec of `c2l1'. This will turn off blank lines, clip each cell after its second line, and hide all cells below level one.
Hyperlinks may be embedded in cells and may refer to other cells or external sources of information. Explicit Hyperbole buttons may be created as usual via mouse drags, section 3.7.1.1 Creation Via Action Key Drags. A klink is a special implicit link button, delimited by <> separators, that jumps to a specific outline cell. This section discusses klinks.
Press the Action Key over a klink to follow it. This will flash the klink as a button and then will display its referent in the other window. If the klink contains a view spec, that will be used when the referent is displayed.
There are a number of easy ways to insert klinks into koutlines. If you have mouse support under Hyperbole, simply click the Action Key within the indentation to the left of a cell text. If you then double click on some cell, a link to that cell will be inserted where you started. From a keyboard, use {C-c l} when in a koutline or {C-h h o l} when not in a koutline to insert a klink. Since klinks are implicit buttons, you can type in the text of the klink just as you see it in the examples below and it will work exactly as if it had been entered with the insert link command.
There are basically three forms of klinks:
Attributes are named variables whose values are specific to a particular outline cell. Thus, each cell has its own attribute list. Every cell has three standard attributes:
{C-c C-i} is the command to add an attribute to or to modify an
existing attribute in the cell at point. Think of it as inserting an
attribute value. To remove an attribute from cell, set its value to
nil.
The `no-fill' attribute is special. When added with a non-nil value, it prevents moving, promoting, demoting, exchanging, splitting and appending cells from refilling the cell, even if the variable, kotl-mode:refill-flag, is set to t. It does not prevent you from invoking explicit commands that refill the cell. See section 7.5.4 Filling.
The attribute lists for the cells in the tree rooted at point can be displayed by pressing the Assist Key within the contents of a cell.
{C-c h} prompts for a cell label and displays the cell's attributes. {C-u C-c h} prompts for a cell label and displays the attributes for it and its subtree; use 0 as the kcell id to see attributes for all visible cells in the outline.
Much of the Hyperbole outliner design is based upon concepts pioneered in the NLS/Augment system, [Eng84a]. Augment treated documents as a hierarchical set of nodes, called statements, rather than cells. Every Augment document utilized this intrinsic structure.
The system could rapidly change the view of a document by collapsing, expanding, generating, clipping, filtering, including or reordering these nodes. It could also map individual views to multiple workstation displays across a network to aid in distributed, collaborative work.
These facilities aided greatly in idea structuring, cross-referencing, and knowledge transfer. The Koutliner is a start at bringing these capabilities back into the mainstream of modern computing culture.
Hyperbole includes a complete, advanced rolodex system, Wrolo, for convenient management of hierarchical, record-oriented information.
Hyperbole buttons may be included within rolodex records and then manually activated whenever their records are retrieved.
See the description at the top of the `wrolo.el' file for details on programmatic interfacing to the rolodex. The following subsections explain use and basic customization of the rolodex.
The rolodex manages and searches rolodex files. A rolodex file consists of an optional header which starts and ends with a line of equal signs (at least three equal signs starting at the beginning of a line), followed by any non-negative number of rolodex records. You must manually add a header to any rolodex file if you want it to have one.
Here is an example of a simple rolodex file.
==================================================================
PERSONAL ROLODEX
<Last-Name>, <First> <Email> W<Work#> F<Fax#>
==================================================================
* Smith, John <js@hiho.com> W708-555-2001 F708-321-1492
Chief Ether Maintainer, HiHo Industries
10/24/95
We call rolodex records, entries. Entries begin with a delimiter, some number of `*' characters at the beginning of a line. Entries may be arranged in a hierarchy, where child entries begin with one more `*' characters than do their parents. Top level entries begin with a single `*'.
Beyond this initial delimiter, entries are completely free-form text. It is best to use a "lastname, firstname" format, however, when adding contact entries into a rolodex. Then the rolodex system will automatically keep your entries alphabetized as you enter them. You'll also be able to sort them whenever you desire.
Any search done on the rolodex scans the full text of each entry. During a search, the rolodex file header separator lines and anything in between are appended to the buffer of matched entries before any entries are retrieved from the file. Whenever an entry is matched, it and all of its descendant entries are retrieved. If your Emacs version supports textual highlighting, each search match is highlighted for quick, visual location.
For example, a search on "Company" could retrieve the following:
==================================================================
COMPANY ROLODEX
==================================================================
* Company
** Manager
*** Underlings
Thus, searching for Company retrieves all listed employees. Searching for Manager turns up all Underlings.
The Rolo/ menu entry on the Hyperbole top-level menu provides the user interface to the rolodex. The rolo menu provides access to the following commands:
Menu Item Command Description
====================================================================
Add rolo-add Adds a rolodex entry
Display rolo-display-matches Displays last matches again
Edit rolo-edit Edits an existing rolodex entry
Info Displays Rolodex manual entry
Kill rolo-kill Removes an entry from the rolodex
Mail rolo-mail Mail to address following point
Order rolo-sort Sorts all levels in rolodex
RegexFind rolo-grep Finds all entries containing
a regular expression
StringFind rolo-fgrep Finds all entries containing
a string
WordFind rolo-word Finds all entries containing
a string of whole words
Yank rolo-yank Inserts first matching rolodex
entry at point
====================================================================
A prefix argument used with either of the find commands listed above limits the search to a maximum number of matches given by the argument. The search is terminated whenever that number of matches is found.
For any of the above commands that prompt for a name, you may use the form parent/child to locate a child entry below a parent entry. So for a rolodex which looked like so:
* Company ** Manager *** Underlings
You could edit the Underlings entry by identifying it as Company/Manager/Underlings. Do not use this hierarchical notation in search expressions since the whole rolodex will be searched anyway. Thus, "Underlings" as a search pattern will find an entry containing "Underlings" at any level in a hierarchy, like so:
*** Underlings
Use the {e} key to edit the entry at point within the rolodex source file.
After a rolodex search is performed, point is left in the rolodex
match buffer, `*Rolodex*', which uses wrolo-mode to
simplify browsing many rolodex matches. Press {?} when in the
match buffer for a summary of available keys.
If your Emacs version supports textual highlighting, each search match is highlighted for quick, visual location. {TAB} moves point forward to successive spans of text which match the search expression. {M-TAB} or {r} moves point backward to earlier matches. These keys allow you to quickly find the matching entry of most interest to you if your search expression failed to narrow the matches sufficiently.
If you want to extend the match expression with some more characters to find a particular entry, use {M-s}, which performs an interactive search forward for the match expression. You can add or delete characters to this expression to find different occurences. {C-r} will reverse the direction of the search.
Single key outlining commands are also available for browsing matches. If your search matches a large number of entries, use {t} to get a top-level overview of all the entries. Each entry is collapsed so that only its first line shows. Press {s} to show (expand) the entry at point. Use {h} to hide (collapse) the entry again. Press {a} to expand all entries in the buffer.
Many other keys are defined to help you move through matching entries.
Once you have found an entry of interest and you want to remove the rolodex match buffer, use {q} to quit. This will restore your current frame to its state prior to the rolodex search.
If textual highlighting is available in your Emacs on your current display type, the rolodex uses the value of rolo-highlight-face as the face to use to highlight search matches.
The buffers containing the rolodex files are not killed after a search
on the assumption that another search is likely to follow within this
Emacs session. You may wish to change this behavior with the following
setting: (setq rolo-kill-buffers-after-use t).
After an entry is killed, the modified rolodex file is automatically
saved. If you would rather always save files yourself, use this
setting: (setq rolo-save-buffers-after-use nil).
When adding an entry from within a buffer containing a mail message, the rolodex add function will extract the sender's name and e-mail address and prompt you with the name as a default. If you accept it, it will enter the name and the email address using the format given by the rolo-email-format variable. See its documentation if you want to change its value.
The files used in any rolodex search are given by the
rolo-file-list variable, whose default value is
("~/.rolodex.otl"), so that searches initially scan only your
personal rolodex. Any entries added to this list should be file
pathnames. If a file in the list does not exist or is not readable, it
is skipped. Files are searched in the order in which they appear in the
list. In general, you should leave your personal rolodex file as the
first entry in the list, since this is the only file to which the rolo
menu Add command adds entries.
The rolodex entry start delimiter is given by the regular expression variable, rolo-entry-regexp, whose default value is "^\*+".
A rolodex file may begin with an optional header section which is copied to the match display buffer whenever any matches are found during a search. The start and end lines of this header are controlled by the regular expression variable, rolo-hdr-regexp, whose default value is "^===". This allows lines of all equal signs to visually separate matching entries from multiple files retrieved from a single search.
Hyperbole includes the `wconfig.el' package which lets you save and restore window configurations, i.e. the window layout and buffers displayed within an Emacs frame. This is useful to save a particular working context and then to jump back to it at a later time during an Emacs session. It is also useful during demonstrations to pull up many informational artifacts all at once, e.g. all of the windows for a particular subsystem. None of this information is stored between Emacs sessions, so your window configurations will last only through a single session of use.
The wconfig library provides two distinct means of managing window configurations. The first means associates a name with each stored window configuration. The name can then be used to retrieve the window configuration later. The second means uses a ring structure to save window configurations and then allows browsing through the sequence of saved configurations.
The Win/ menu entry on the Hyperbole top-level menu displays a menu of window configuration commands:
WinConfig> AddName DeleteName RestoreName PopRing SaveRing YankRing
Menu Item Command Description ==================================================================== AddName wconfig-add-by-name Name current wconfig DeleteName wconfig-delete-by-name Delete wconfig with name RestoreName wconfig-restore-by-name Restore wconfig by name PopRing wconfig-delete-pop Restore and delete wconfig SaveRing wconfig-ring-save Store wconfig to ring YankRing wconfig-yank-pop Restore next wconfig ====================================================================
Saving and restoring window configurations by name is the easiest method, but it requires that you input the chosen name from the keyboard. The ring commands permit saving and restoring through mouse interaction only, if so desired. The prior section, section 4 Smart Keys, mentions how to save and restore window configurations with the Smart Keys. Since the ring commands are a bit more complex than their by-name counterparts, the following paragraphs explain them in more detail.
Wconfig creates a ring structure that operates just like the Emacs kill-ring, section `Kill Ring' in The GNU Emacs Manual, but its elements are window configurations rather than text regions. One can add an element to the ring based upon the current window configuration. After several elements are in the ring, one can walk through all of them in sequence until the desired configuration is restored.
SaveRing executes the wconfig-ring-save command which
saves the current window configuration to the ring.
YankRing executes the wconfig-yank-pop command. It restores the
window configuration from the currently pointed to configuration in the
ring. It does not delete this configuration from the ring but it does
move the pointer to the prior ring element. Repeated calls to this
command thus restore successive window configurations until the ring
pointer wraps around. Simply stop when a desired configuration appears
and use {q} to quit from the minibuffer menu.
PopRing calls the wconfig-delete-pop command.
It is used to restore a previously saved configuration and at the same
time delete it from the ring. Simply stop when a desired configuration
appears and use {q} to quit from the minibuffer menu.
The maximum number of elements the ring can hold is set by the wconfig-ring-max variable whose default is 10. Any saves beyond this value cause deletion of the oldest element in the ring before a new one is added.
This chapter is only for people who are familiar with Emacs Lisp and wish to customize Hyperbole, to extend it, or to develop other systems using Hyperbole as a base.
Hyperbole provides a number of hook variables that allow you to adjust its basic operations to meet your own needs, without requiring you to change the code for those operations.
We find it best to always set the value of hook variables either to nil or to a list of function names of no arguments, each of which will be called in sequence when the hook is triggered.
Given the name of a function, a Hyperbole hook variable triggered within
that function has the same name as the function with a -hook
appended. Hyperbole provides the following hook variables:
Hyperbole also makes use of a number of external Emacs hook variables.
To define or redefine a single Hyperbole type, you may either:
(eval-defun) (only works in Emacs Lisp mode);
(eval-last-sexp) (works in most modes).
The functions from the htype class may be applied to any
Hyperbole types, if needed.
The following subsections explain the specifics of Hyperbole type definitions which are beyond standard practice for Emacs Lisp programming. See the definitions of the standard types in `hactypes.el' and `hibtypes.el' for examples.
New forms of explicit buttons may be created by adding new action types to a Hyperbole environment. The file, `hactypes.el', provides many examples of working action types.
An action type is created, i.e. loaded into the Hyperbole environment,
with the (defact) function (which is an alias for
(actype:create)). The calling signature for this function is
given in its documentation; it is the same as that of (defun)
except that a documentation string is required. (An interactive calling
form is also required if the action type has formal parameters and is to
be used in explicit button definitions. Implicit buttons never use an
action type's interactive form. It is good practice to include an
interactive form since the type creator cannot know how users may choose
to apply the type.)
An action type's parameters are used differently than those of a function being called. Its interactive calling form is used when an explicit button is created to prompt for type-specific button attributes. The rest of its body is used when a button with that action type is activated. Then the button attributes together with the action type body are used to form an action that is executed in response to the button activation. The action's result is returned to the action caller unless it returns nil, in which case t is returned to the caller to ensure that it registers the performance of the action.
An action type body may perform any computation using Emacs Lisp and Hyperbole functions.
The interactive calling form for an action type is of the same form as
that of a regular Emacs Lisp function definition (see the documentation
for the Emacs Lisp (interactive) form). It may additionally use
Hyperbole command character extensions when the form is given as a
string. Each such extension character must be preceded by a plus
sign, +, in order to be recognized since such characters may also
have standard interactive form meanings.
The present Hyperbole extension characters are:
Arguments are read by the functions in Hyperbole's hargs class,
rather than the standard Lisp read functions, in order to allow
direct selection of arguments via the Action Key.
If an action type create is successful, the symbol that Hyperbole uses
internally to reference the type is returned. Nil is returned on
failure so that you may test whether or not the operation succeeds.
Once you have defined an action type within your present Hyperbole environment, you can create new explicit buttons which use it. There is no explicit button type beyond its action type, so no further work is necessary.
Call (actype:delete) to remove an action type from a Hyperbole
environment. It takes a single parameter which should be the same type
symbol used in the type definition call (not the Hyperbole symbol
returned by the call).
An implicit button type is created or loaded via the (defib)
function (which is an alias for (ibtype:create)). The calling
signature for this function is given in its documentation; it is the
same as that of (defun), but with a number of constraints. The
parameter list should always be empty since no parameters will be used.
A documentation string is required. The type's body follows this.
The body of an implicit button type is a predicate which determines
whether or not point is within an implicit button of the type. If not,
the predicate returns nil. If so, it may optionally setup to
flash the button and then perform one or more actions. A call of the
form: (ibut:label-set label start-pos end-pos) is used to setup
the button flashing, if desired. This is then typically immediately
followed by an action invocation of the form:
(hact 'actype &rest actype-arguments). It is imperative that all
actions (non-predicate code) be invoked through the (hact)
function rather than directly or your ibtypes will not work properly.
(Hyperbole first tests to see if any ibtype matches the current context
before activating any type, so it ensures that (hact) calls are
disabled during this testing.) Any action types used may be created
before or after the implicit button type definition but obviously should
be defined before any implicit buttons of the given type are activated;
an error will result, otherwise.
If an implicit button type create is successful, the symbol that
Hyperbole uses internally to reference the type is returned. Nil
is returned on failure so that you may test whether or not the operation
succeeds. Implicit button type names and action type names may be the
same without any conflict. In fact, such naming is encouraged when an
implicit button type is the exclusive user of an action type.
Call (ibtype:delete) to remove an implicit button type from a
Hyperbole environment. It takes a single parameter which should be the
same type symbol used in the type definition call (not the Hyperbole
symbol returned by the call). This will not delete the action type used
by the implicit button; that must be done separately.
By default, a request for help on an implicit button will display the
button's attributes in the same manner as is done for explicit buttons.
For some implicit button types, other forms of help will be more
appropriate. If an Emacs Lisp function is defined whose name is formed
from the concatenation of the type name followed by :help, e.g.
my-ibtype:help, it is used to respond to requests for
help on buttons of that type. Any such function should take a single
argument of an implicit button construct. (This is what
(ibut:at-p) returns when point is within an implicit button
context.) The button may be queried for its attributes using functions
from the hbut and hattr classes. See the `hib-kbd.el'
file for an example of a custom help function.
Hyperbole uses a normalized form of button labels called button keys (or
label keys) for all internal operations. See the documentation for the
function (hbut:label-to-key) for details of the normalization
process. The normalized form permits Hyperbole to recognize buttons that
are the same but whose labels appear different from one another, due to
text formatting conventions. For example, all of the following would
be recognized as the same button.
<(fake button)> <( fake button)> Pam> <(fake Pam> button)> ;; <(fake ;; button)> /* <( fake */ /* button )> */
The last three examples demonstrate how Hyperbole ignores common fill prefix patterns that happen to fall within the middle of a button label that spans multiple lines. As long as such buttons are selected with point at a location within the label's first line, the button will be recognized. The variable hbut:fill-prefix-regexps holds the list of fill prefixes recognized when embedded within button labels. All such prefixes are recognized (one per button label), regardless of the setting of the GNU Emacs variable, fill-prefix, so no user intervention is required.
Hyperbole uses a terse format to store explicit buttons and a more meaningful one to show users and to manipulate during editing. The terse format consists solely of button attribute values whereas the edit format includes an attribute name with each attribute value. A button in edit format consists of a Lisp symbol together with its attribute list which holds the attribute names and values. In this way, buttons may be passed along from function to function simply by passing the symbol to which the button is attached. Most functions utilize the pre-defined hbut:current symbol by default to store and retrieve the last encountered button in edit format.
The hbdata class handles the terse, stored format. The
hbut, ebut, and ibut classes work with the
name/value format. This separation permits the wholesale replacement of
the storage manager with another, with any interface changes hidden from
any Hyperbole client programming.
A common need when developing with Hyperbole is the ability to create or modify explicit buttons without user interaction. For example, an application might require the addition of an explicit summary button to a file for each new mail message a user reads that contains a set of keywords. The user could then check the summary file and jump to desired messages quickly.
The Hyperbole class ebut supports programmatic access to explicit
buttons. See it within the `hbut.el' file for full details. The
documentation for (ebut:create) explains the set of attributes
settings necessary to create an explicit button. For operations over
the whole set of buttons within the visible (non-narrowed) portion of a
buffer, use the (ebut:map) function.
A powerful use of implicit button types is to provide a Hyperbole-based interface to external systems. The basic idea is to interpret patterns output by the application as implicit buttons.
See the `hsys-*' files for examples of how to do this. Encapsulations are provided for the following systems (the systems themselves are not included with Hyperbole):
[NOTE: We have never done this ourselves, though we have done similar things which leads us to infer that the task should not be difficult.]
The standard Emacs-based Hyperbole user interface has purposely been separated from the Hyperbole backend to support the development of alternative interfaces and the embedding of Hyperbole functionality within other system prototypes. The Hyperbole backend functionality that system developers can make use of is called its Application Programming Interface (API). The API may be used to make server-based calls to Hyperbole when Emacs is run as a non-interactive (batch) process, with its input/output streams attached to another process.
The public functions and variables from the following files may be considered the present Hyperbole API:
`hact.el', `hargs.el', `hbmap.el', `hbut.el', `hhist.el', `hmail.el', `hmoccur.el', `hpath.el', `htz.el', `hypb.el', `set.el', `wconfig.el', `wrolo.el', and `wrolo-logic.el'.
Note when looking at these files, that they are divided into sections that separate one data abstraction (class) from another. A line of dashes within a class separates public parts of the class from the private parts that follow the line.
This API does not include the Hyperbole outliner, as it has been designed for interactive use, rather than programmatic extensibility. You can certainly study its code, below the `hyperbole/kotl/' directory and learn to program it, however.
Concepts pertinent to operational usage of Hyperbole are defined here. If some GNU Emacs terms are unfamiliar to you, section `Glossary' in the GNU Emacs Manual.
action
Action Key
action type
activation
ange-ftp
argument
Assist Key
attributes
Augment
button
button activation
button attributes
button data
button file, local
button file, personal
button key
button label
button selection
category
cell
children
class
context
environment
efs
explicit button
<(fake button)>. Direct selection is
used to operate upon an explicit button.
global button
global button file
hook variable
(run-hooks).
Hyperbole
Hyperbole environment
hypertext
implicit button
implicit button type
instance number
koutline
Koutliner
kcell
link
local button file
minibuffer window
minibuffer menu
mouse button
mouse key
node
outline
parent
predecessor
predicate
referent
rolodex
root cell
Smart Key
source buffer / file
subtree
successor
system encapsulation
tree
view
view spec
This appendix supplies complete documentation on Smart Key operation. It is quite extensive and is meant for reference rather than sequential reading. See section 4 Smart Keys, for a description of the Smart Keys. That section also describes how to get context-sensitive Smart Key help, with which you can explore Smart Key operation bit by bit.
Smart Key operations are context-sensitive. Contexts are described herein as conditionals, e.g. when depressed here, if this is true, etc. Each Smart Key context is listed in the order in which it will be checked. The first matching context is always the one applied. Within each context, the actions performed by the Action and Assist Keys are listed.
Smart Key drags and modeline presses can only be used when running under a window system with mouse key support. So keep in mind that the operations in this section apply only if you have mouse support within Hyperbole. The Smart Key operations in, section 10.7 Smart Keyboard Keys, apply to both mouse and keyboard Smart Key usage.
If dragged from a side-by-side window edge or from the immediate left of
a vertical scroll bar:
ACTION or ASSIST
Resizes adjacent window sides to the point of drag release.
If dragged from inside one window to another:
ACTION
Creates a new link button at the drag start location, linked to the
drag end location. If drag start position is within a button,
modifies the button to link to drag end location.
ASSIST
Swaps buffers in the two windows.
If dragged horizontally within a single window while depressed
(hmouse-x-drag-sensitivity sets the minimal horizontal movement which
registers a drag):
ACTION
Goes to buffer end if drag was to the right, otherwise goes to beginning.
ASSIST
Splits window vertically if drag was to the right, otherwise deletes
window.
If depressed within a window mode line:
ACTION
(1) clicked on left edge of a window's modeline,
window's buffer is buried (placed at bottom of buffer list);
(2) clicked on right edge of a window's modeline,
the Info buffer is displayed, or if already displayed and the
modeline clicked belongs to a window displaying Info, the Info
buffer is hidden;
(3) clicked anywhere in the middle of a window's modeline,
the functions listed in 'assist-key-modeline-hook' are
called;
(4) dragged vertically from modeline to within a window,
the modeline is moved to point of key release, thereby resizing
its window and potentially its vertical neighbors.
ASSIST
(1) clicked on left edge of a window's modeline,
bottom buffer in buffer list is unburied and placed in window;
(2) clicked on right edge of a window's modeline,
the summary of Smart Key behavior is displayed, or if already
displayed and the modeline clicked belongs to a window displaying
the summary, the summary buffer is hidden;
(3) clicked anywhere in the middle of a window's modeline,
a popup menu (if available) is displayed;
(4) dragged vertically from modeline to within a window,
the modeline is moved to point of key release, thereby resizing
its window and potentially its vertical neighbors.
If dragged vertically within a single window while depressed
(hmouse-y-drag-sensitivity sets the minimal vertical movement which
registers a drag):
ACTION or ASSIST
Splits current window into two side-by-side windows.
If dragged diagonally within a single window while depressed
(hmouse-x-diagonal-sensitivity and hmouse-y-diagonal-sensitivity set the
minimal diagonal movement which registers a drag):
ACTION
Save current window configuration onto a ring of window configurations.
ASSIST
Restores prior window configuration from ring. A prefix argument N
specifies the Nth prior configuration from the ring.
When prompting for a Hyperbole argument, a press in the minibuffer:
ACTION
Terminates this minibuffer argument.
ASSIST
Offers completion help for current minibuffer argument.
When reading a Hyperbole menu item or a Hyperbole completion-based argument:
ACTION
Returns value selected at point if any, else nil. If
value is the same as the contents of the minibuffer, it is used as the
current minibuffer argument, otherwise, the minibuffer is erased and
value is inserted there.
ASSIST
Displays Hyperbole menu item help when item is selected.
When pressed at the end of a line but not the end of a buffer:
ACTION
Scrolls up according to value of smart-scroll-proportional. If
smart-scroll-proportional is nil or if point is on the top
window line, scrolls up (forward) a windowful. Otherwise, tries to
bring current line to top of window. Leaves point at end of line and
returns t if scrolled, nil if not.
ASSIST
Scrolls down according to value of smart-scroll-proportional. If
smart-scroll-proportional is nil or if point is on the
bottom window line, scrolls down (backward) a windowful. Otherwise,
tries to bring current line to bottom of window. Leaves point at end of
line and returns t if scrolled, nil if not.
When pressed on a Hyperbole button:
ACTION
Activates button.
ASSIST
Displays help for button, typically a summary of its attributes.
If pressed within a buffer in View major or minor mode:
ACTION
Scrolls buffer forward a windowful and quits from view mode when at
the last line of the buffer.
ASSIST
Scrolls buffer backward a windowful.
When pressed within a Hyperbole outliner buffer (kotl-mode):
ACTION
(1) at the end of buffer, uncollapse and unhide all cells in view;
(2) within a cell, if its subtree is hidden then show it,
otherwise hide it;
(3) between cells or within the read-only indentation region to the
left of a cell, then move point to prior location and begin
creation of a klink to some other outline cell; hit the Action
Key twice to select the link referent cell;
(4) anywhere else, scroll up a windowful.
ASSIST
(1) at the end of buffer, collapse all cells and hide all non-level-one
cells;
(2) on a header line but not at the beginning or end, display
properties of each cell in kotl beginning at point;
(3) between cells or within the read-only indentation region to the
left of a cell, then move point to prior location and prompt to
move one tree to a new location in the outline; hit the Action
Key twice to select the tree to move and where to move it;
(4) anywhere else, scroll down a windowful.
When pressed on a Smart Menu item:
ACTION
Activates item.
ASSIST
Displays help for item.
When pressed at the end of a Help buffer:
ACTION or ASSIST
Restores window configuration prior to help display.
When pressed within an OO-Browser listing window:
ACTION
(1) in a blank buffer or at the end of a buffer, browser help
information is displayed in the viewer window;
(2) at the beginning of a (non-single char) class name, the class'
ancestors are listed;
(3) at the end of an entry line, scrolls listing up;
(4) on the '...', following a class name, point is moved to the class
descendency expansion;
(5) before an element name, the implementor classes of the name are
listed;
(6) anywhere else on an entry line, the source is displayed for editing.
ASSIST
(1) in a blank buffer, a selection list of buffer files is displayed;
(2) at the beginning of a (non-single char) entry, the class'
descendants are listed;
(3) at the end of an entry line, scrolls listing down;
(4) on the '...', following a class name, point is moved to the class
expansion;
(5) anywhere else on a class entry line, lists the class' elements;
(6) anywhere else on an element line, lists the element's implementor
classes;
(7) on a blank line following all entries, the current listing buffer
is exited.
When pressed within an OO-Browser Command Help Menu buffer:
ACTION
Executes an OO-Browser command whose key binding is at point.
ASSIST
Displays help for an OO-Browser command whose key binding is at point.
When pressed on an identifier within an OO-Browser source file:
ACTION
Tries to display identifier definition.
ASSIST
Not applicable.
When pressed within a C source code file:
ACTION
Jumps to the definition of selected C construct:
(1) on a '#include' statement, the include file is displayed;
Look for include file in directory lists
'smart-c-cpp-include-dirs' and 'smart-c-include-dirs'.
(2) on a C identifier, the identifier definition is displayed,
assuming the identifier is found within an 'etags' generated tag file
in the current directory or any of its ancestor directories.
(3) if 'smart-c-use-lib-man' is non-nil, the C identifier is
recognized as a library symbol, and a man page is found for the
identifier, then the man page is displayed.
ASSIST
Jumps to the next tag matching an identifier at point.
When pressed within an assembly source code file:
ACTION
Jumps to the definition of selected assembly construct:
(1) on an include statement, the include file is displayed;
Look for include file in directory list
'smart-asm-include-dirs'.
(2) on an identifier, the identifier definition is displayed,
assuming the identifier is found within an 'etags' generated
tag file in the current directory or any of its ancestor
directories.
ASSIST
Jumps to the next tag matching an identifier at point.
When pressed within a C++ source code file:
ACTION
Jumps to the definition of selected C+ construct:
(1) on a '#include' statement, the include file is displayed;
Look for include file in directory lists
'smart-c-cpp-include-dirs' and 'smart-c-include-dirs'.
(2) on a C++ identifier, the identifier definition is displayed,
assuming the identifier is found within an 'etags' generated tag file
in the current directory or any of its ancestor directories.
(3) if 'smart-c-use-lib-man' is non-nil, the C++ identifier is
recognized as a library symbol, and a man page is found for the
identifier, then the man page is displayed.
ASSIST
Jumps to the next tag matching an identifier at point.
When pressed within a Objective-C source code file:
ACTION
Jumps to the definition of selected C+ construct:
(1) on a '#include' statement, the include file is displayed;
Look for include file in directory lists
'smart-c-cpp-include-dirs' and 'smart-c-include-dirs'.
(2) on an Objective-C identifier, the identifier definition is displayed,
assuming the identifier is found within an 'etags' generated tag file
in the current directory or any of its ancestor directories.
(3) if 'smart-c-use-lib-man' is non-nil, the Objective-C identifier is
recognized as a library symbol, and a man page is found for the
identifier, then the man page is displayed.
ASSIST
Jumps to the next tag matching an identifier at point.
When pressed on a Lisp symbol within a Lisp code buffer:
ACTION
Jumps to the definition of any selected Lisp construct.
If on an Emacs Lisp require, load, or autoload clause and 'find-library'
from load-library package by Hallvard Furuseth <hallvard@ifi.uio.no> has
been loaded, jumps to library source, if possible.
ASSIST
Jumps to the next tag matching an identifier at point or if using the
"wtags" package and identifier is an Emacs Lisp symbol, then displays
documentation for the symbol.
When the OO-Browser has been loaded and the press is within a C++ buffer:
ACTION or ASSIST
Jumps to the definition of selected C++ construct via OO-Browser support.
(1) on a '#include' statement, the include file is displayed;
Look for include file in directory lists
'smart-c-cpp-include-dirs' and 'smart-c-include-dirs'.
(2) within a method declaration, its definition is displayed;
(3) on a class name, the class definition is shown.
When the OO-Browser has been loaded and the press is within a
Objective-C buffer:
ACTION or ASSIST
Jumps to the definition of selected Objective-C construct via
OO-Browser support.
(1) on a '#include' statement, the include file is displayed;
Look for include file in directory lists
'smart-c-cpp-include-dirs' and 'smart-c-include-dirs'.
(2) within a method declaration, its definition is displayed;
(3) on a class name, the class definition is shown.
When pressed within an occur-mode or moccur-mode buffer:
ACTION or ASSIST
Jumps to the source buffer and line of the current occurrence.
When pressed within a calendar-mode buffer:
ACTION
(1) at the end of the buffer, the calendar is scrolled forward 3 months;
(2) to the left of any dates on a calendar line, the calendar is scrolled
backward 3 months;
(3) on a date, the diary entries for the date, if any, are displayed.
ASSIST
(1) at the end of the buffer, the calendar is scrolled backward 3 months;
(2) to the left of any dates on a calendar line, the calendar is scrolled
forward 3 months;
(3) anywhere else, all dates with marking diary entries are marked in the
calendar window.
When pressed within a man page apropos buffer:
ACTION
(1) on a UNIX man apropos entry, the man page for that entry is
displayed in another window;
(2) on or after the last line, the buffer in the other window is
scrolled up a windowful.
ASSIST
(1) on a UNIX man apropos entry, the man page for that entry is
displayed in another window;
(2) on or after the last line, the buffer in the other window is
scrolled down a windowful.
If Smart Menu package has been loaded and 'hkey-always-display-menu' is
non-nil:
ACTION or ASSIST
Pops up a window with a Smart Menu of commands.
Menu displayed is selected by (smart-menu-choose-menu).
If pressed within an outline-mode buffer or when 'selective-display' is
non-nil:
ACTION
Collapses, expands, and moves outline entries.
(1) after an outline heading has been cut via the Action Key, then paste
the cut heading at point;
(2) at the end of buffer, show all buffer text
(3) at the beginning of a heading line, cut the headings subtree from the
buffer;
(4) on a header line but not at the beginning or end, if headings
subtree is hidden then show it, otherwise hide it;
(5) anywhere else, scroll up a windowful.
ASSIST
(1) after an outline heading has been cut via the Action Key, allow
multiple pastes throughout the buffer (last paste should be done
with the Action Key, not the Assist Key);
(2) at the end of buffer, hide all bodies in buffer;
(3) at the beginning of a heading line, cut the current heading (sans
subtree) from the buffer;
(4) on a header line but not at the beginning or end, if heading body is
hidden then show it, otherwise hide it;
(5) anywhere else, scroll down a windowful.
If pressed within an Info manual node:
ACTION
(1) the first line of an Info Menu Entry or Cross Reference, the desired
node is found;
(2) the Up,Next,or Previous entries of a Node Header (first line),
the desired node is found;
(3) the File entry of a Node Header (first line),
the 'Top' node within that file is found;
(4) at the end of the current node, the Next node is found (this will
descend subtrees if the function 'Info-global-next' is bound);
(5) anywhere else (e.g. at the end of a line), the current node entry is
scrolled up a windowful.
ASSIST
(1) the first line of an Info Menu Entry or Cross Reference, the desired
node is found;
(2) the Up,Next,or Previous entries of a Node Header (first line),
the last node in the history list is found;
(3) the File entry of a Node Header (first line),
the 'DIR' root-level node is found;
(4) at the end of the current node, the Previous node is found (this will
return from subtrees if the function 'Info-global-prev is bound);
(5) anywhere else (e.g. at the end of a line), the current node entry is
scrolled down a windowful.
If pressed within a Hyperbole-supported mail reader, 'hmail:reader', or mail
summary mode, 'hmail:lister', buffer at:
ACTION
(1) a msg buffer, within the first line or at the end of a message,
the next undeleted message is displayed;
(2) a msg buffer within the first line of an Info cross reference, the
reference is followed;
(3) anywhere else in a msg buffer, the window is scrolled up one
windowful;
(4) a msg summary buffer on a header entry, the message corresponding to
the header is displayed in the msg window;
(5) a msg summary buffer, on or after the last line, the messages marked
for deletion are expunged.
ASSIST
(1) a msg buffer, within the first line or at the end of a message,
the previous undeleted message is displayed;
(2) a msg buffer within the first line of an Info cross reference, the
reference is followed;
(3) anywhere else in a msg buffer, the window is scrolled down one
windowful;
(4) a msg summary buffer on a header entry, the message corresponding to
the header is marked as deleted;
(5) a msg summary buffer, on or after the last line, all messages are
marked undeleted.
If pressed within a GNUS listing of newsgroups buffer at:
ACTION
(1) a GNUS-GROUP line, that newsgroup is read;
(2) to the left of any GNUS-GROUP line, on any of the whitespace, the
current group is unsubscribed or resubscribed;
(3) at the end of the GNUS-GROUP buffer, after all lines, checks for new
news.
ASSIST
(1) a GNUS-GROUP line, that newsgroup is read;
(2) to the left of any GNUS-GROUP line, on any of the whitespace, the
user is prompted for a group name to subscribe or unsubscribe to;
(3) at the end of the GNUS-GROUP buffer, after all lines, quits from the
newsreader.
If pressed within a GNUS newsreader subject listing buffer at:
ACTION
(1) a GNUS-SUBJECT line, that article is read, marked deleted, and
scrolled forward;
(2) at the end of the GNUS-SUBJECT buffer, the next undeleted article
is read or the next group is entered.
ASSIST
(1) a GNUS-SUBJECT line, that article is read and scrolled backward;
(2) at the end of the GNUS-SUBJECT buffer, the subject is exited, the
user is returned to group mode.
If pressed within a GNUS newsreader article buffer at:
ACTION
(1) the first line or end of an article, the next unread message is
displayed;
(2) the first line of an Info cross reference, the reference is followed;
(3) anywhere else, the window is scrolled up a windowful.
ASSIST
(1) the first line or end of an article, the previous message is
displayed;
(2) the first line of an Info cross reference, the reference is followed;
(3) anywhere else, the window is scrolled down a windowful.
If pressed within a listing of buffers (Buffer-menu-mode):
ACTION
(1) on the first column of an entry, the selected buffer is marked for
display;
(2) on the second column of an entry, the selected buffer is marked to be
saved;
(3) anywhere else within an entry line, all saves and deletes are done,
and selected buffers are displayed, including the one just clicked
on (if in the OO-Browser, only the selected buffer is displayed);
(4) on or after the last line in the buffer, all saves and deletes are
done.
ASSIST
(1) on the first or second column of an entry, the selected buffer is
unmarked for display and for saving or deletion;
(2) anywhere else within an entry line, the selected buffer is marked for
deletion;
(3) on or after the last line in the buffer, all display, save, and delete
marks on all entries are undone.
If pressed within a dired-mode buffer:
ACTION
(1) within an entry line, the selected file/directory is displayed
for editing in the other window;
(2) on or after the last line in the buffer, if any deletes are to be
performed, they are executed after user verification, otherwise, this
dired invocation is quit.
ASSIST
(1) on a '~' character, all backup files in the directory are marked for
deletion;
(2) on a '#' character, all auto-save files in the directory are marked
for deletion;
(3) anywhere else within an entry line, the current entry is marked for
deletion;
(4) on or after the last line in the buffer, all delete marks on all
entries are undone.
If pressed within a tar-mode buffer:
ACTION
(1) within an entry line, the selected file/directory is displayed
for editing in the other window;
(2) on or after the last line in the buffer, if any deletes are to be
performed, they are executed after user verification, otherwise, this
tar file browser is quit.
ASSIST
(1) on an entry line, the current entry is marked for deletion;
(2) on or after the last line in the buffer, all delete marks on all
entries are undone.
If pressed on a cross reference within a man page entry section labeled
NAME, SEE ALSO, or PACKAGES USED, or within a man page C routine
specification (see 'smart-man-c-routine-ref') and man page buffer
has either an attached file or else a man-path local variable
containing its pathname:
ACTION or ASSIST
Displays man page or source code for cross reference.
If pressed on a world-wide web universal resource locator:
ACTION
Displays the URL referent at point.
ASSIST
Goes back to a previously displayed web page.
If pressed in a Gomoku game buffer.
ACTION
Makes a move at the space pointed to.
ASSIST
Takes back a prior move made at the space pointed to.
If pressed within an entry in the wrolo match display buffer:
ACTION or ASSIST
The entry is edited in the other window.
This appendix summarizes the specialized key bindings available when editing an outline with Hyperbole. Each key is shown together with its command binding and the documentation for that command. Normal emacs editing keys are modified to account for the structure within outlines. An outliner command which overloads an Emacs command named cmd would be named kotl-mode:cmd.
kfile:write {C-x C-w}
klink:create {C-c l}
kcell:ref-to-id for valid cell-ref formats.
kotl-mode:add-cell {LFD}
kotl-mode:add-child {C-c a}
kotl-mode:add-parent {C-c p}
kotl-mode:append-cell {C-c +}
kotl-mode:back-to-indentation {M-m}
kotl-mode:backward-cell {C-c C-b}
kotl-mode:backward-char {C-b}
kotl-mode:backward-kill-word {M-DEL}
kotl-mode:backward-sentence {M-a}
kotl-mode:backward-word {M-b}
kotl-mode:beginning-of-buffer {M-<}
kotl-mode:beginning-of-cell {C-c ,}
kotl-mode:beginning-of-line {C-a}
kotl-mode:beginning-of-tree {C-c ^}
kotl-mode:center-line {M-s}
kotl-mode:center-paragraph {M-S}
center-line for more info.
kotl-mode:copy-after {C-c c}
kotl-mode:copy-before {C-c C-c}
kotl-mode:copy-to-buffer {C-c M-c}
kotl-mode:copy-to-register {C-x x}
kotl-mode:delete-backward-char {DEL}
kotl-mode:delete-blank-lines {C-x C-o}
kotl-mode:delete-char {C-d}
kotl-mode:delete-indentation {M-^}
kotl-mode:demote-tree {TAB}
kotl-mode:down-level {C-c C-d}
kotl-mode:end-of-buffer {M->}
kotl-mode:end-of-cell {C-c .}
kotl-mode:end-of-line {C-e}
kotl-mode:end-of-tree {C-c $}
kotl-mode:exchange-cells {C-c e}
kotl-mode:fill-cell {C-c M-j}
kotl-mode:fill-paragraph {C-x f}
kotl-mode:fill-tree {C-M-j}
kotl-mode:first-sibling {C-c <}
kotl-mode:fkey-backward-char {left}
kotl-mode:fkey-forward-char {right}
kotl-mode:fkey-next-line {down}
kotl-mode:fkey-previous-line {up}
kotl-mode:forward-cell {C-c C-f}
kotl-mode:forward-char {C-f}
kotl-mode:forward-para {M-n}
kotl-mode:forward-paragraph {M-]}
kotl-mode:forward-sentence {M-e}
kotl-mode:forward-word {M-f}
kotl-mode:goto-cell {C-c g}
kotl-mode:hide-sublevels {C-X $}
kotl-mode:hide-subtree {C-M-h}
kotl-mode:hide-tree {C-c BS}
kotl-mode:insert-file {C-x i}
kotl-mode:insert-register {C-c r i}
kotl-mode:just-one-space {M-\}
kotl-mode:kcell-help {C-c h}
kotl-mode:properties.
kotl-mode:kill-contents {C-c k}
kotl-mode:kill-line {C-k}
kotl-mode:kill-region {C-w}
kotl-mode:kill-ring-save {M-w}
kotl-mode:kill-sentence {M-k}
kotl-mode:kill-tree {C-c C-k}
kotl-mode:kill-word {M-d}
kotl-mode:last-sibling {C-c >}
kotl-mode:mail-tree {C-c @}
kotl-mode:move-after {C-c m}
kotl-mode:move-before {C-c RET}
kotl-mode:newline {RET}
kotl-mode:next-cell {C-c C-n}
kotl-mode:next-line {C-n}
kotl-mode:open-line {C-o}
kotl-mode:overview {C-c C-o}
kotl-mode:previous-cell {C-c C-p}
kotl-mode:previous-line {C-p}
kotl-mode:promote-tree {M-TAB}
kotl-mode:scroll-down {M-v}
kotl-mode:scroll-up {C-v}
kotl-mode:set-cell-attribute {C-c C-i}
kotl-mode:set-fill-prefix {C-x l}
kotl-mode:show-all {C-c C-a}
kotl-mode:show-subtree
kotl-mode:show-tree {C-c C-s}
kotl-mode:split-cell {C-c s}
kotl-mode:top-cells {C-c C-t}
kotl-mode:transpose-cells {C-c t}
kotl-mode:transpose-chars {C-t}
kotl-mode:transpose-lines {C-x C-t}
kotl-mode:transpose-words {M-t}
kotl-mode:up-level {C-c C-u}
kotl-mode:yank {C-y}
kotl-mode:yank-pop {M-y}
yank or a
yank-pop. At such a time, the region contains a stretch of
reinserted previously-killed text. yank-pop deletes that text
and inserts in its place a different stretch of killed text.
With no argument, the previous kill is inserted.
With argument N, insert the Nth previous kill.
If N is negative, this is a more recent kill.
The sequence of kills wraps around, so that after the oldest one
comes the newest one.
kotl-mode:zap-to-char {M-z}
kview:set-label-type {C-c C-l}
kvspec:activate {C-c C-v}
kvspec:toggle-blank-lines {C-c b}
See section 1.2 Mail Lists, for complete details on Hyperbole mailing lists and how to subscribe.
If you find any errors in Hyperbole's operation or documentation, feel free to report them to the Hyperbole discussion list: <hyperbole@hub.ucsb.edu>. Be sure to use the Msg/Compose-Hypb-Mail minibuffer menu item whenever you send a message to the mail list since it will insert important system version information for you.
If you use Hyperbole mail or news support, section 3.7.6 Buttons in Mail, a click with your Action Key on the Hyperbole mail list address will insert a description of your Hyperbole configuration information into your outgoing message, so that you do not have to type it. This is useful when composing a reply for the Hyperbole mail list. Otherwise, be sure to include your Emacs, Hyperbole and window system versions in your message. Your Hyperbole version number can be found in the top-level Hyperbole menu.
Please use your subject line to state the position that your message takes on the topic that it addresses, e.g. send "Subject: Basic bug in top-level Hyperbole menu." rather than "Subject: Hyperbole bug". This simple rule makes all e-mail communication much easier.
If you have suggestions on how to improve Hyperbole, send them to the same address. Here are some issues you might address:
hmouse-shift-buttons, can be used to
select between shifted and unshifted Smart Mouse Keys. Any other mouse
key binding changes must be done by editing the hmouse-setup and
hmouse-get-bindings functions in the `hmouse-sh.el' and
`hmouse-reg.el' files.
The hkey-alist and hmouse-alist variable
settings in `hui-mouse.el' and `hui-window.el' must be altered
if you want to change what the Smart Keys do in particular contexts.
You should then update the Smart Key summary documentation in the file,
`hypb-mouse.txt', and potentially the same summary in this manual.
This appendix is included for a number of reasons:
POSITIVE NEGATIVE
Button data in source file
Documents can stand alone. All edit operators have
Normal file operations apply. to account for file
structure and hide
Simplifies creation and internal components.
facility expansion for
structured and multi-media
files.
Button data external to source file
Files can be displayed and Currently, bdata for
printed exactly as they look. whole directory is
No special display formatting locked when any bdata
is necessary. entry is locked.
Button-based searches and
database-type lookup operations
need only search one file
per directory.
This document was generated on 6 June 2000 using the texi2html translator version 1.51a.