MERG Content-to template MERGer
Written by Jan Michael Ibanez
README.TXT
Instructions on using MERG
Introduction
------------
MERG combines specially marked template HTML files with
formatted content files. To properly use this utility, this
file will guide you on how to create the template HTML files
and how to create the content files.
Using MERG
----------
MERG is executed from the DOS prompt. (If you do not know how
to use the DOS prompt, or are unfamiliar with it, ask someone
knowledgeable to help you.) MERG is invoked with this command
line:
MERG [-hnlq][e errfile] template.htm content ...
(Text between [ and ] are optional)
The following are the switches used with MERG:
h
Suppresses HTML in the content files. As of version 1.0
this feature is unsupported.
n
Discard content name. Ordinarily, the output HTML files
will have the name content.html, where content is the
filename of the content file. However, turning on this
switch will output files with names outN.html, where N is
a number.
l
Truncate Long File Names. This switch allows HTML files to
be used in systems which don't support long file names
(LFN).
q
Quiet mode. Turning on this switch suppresses all
informational text. Error text will still be displayed,
however (see next switch for error text).
e errfile
The 'e' switch specifies that MERG write error messages to
the file specified by the name 'errfile'. WARNING: If
errfile already exists, it will be overwritten.
A sample command line would be:
C:\> MERG -nl template.htm content1 content2 *.mc
which will instruct MERG to cut filenames to eight characters
and output 'out00001.htm', 'out00002.htm', etc. MERG will
process content1, content2, and all files with the extension
'mc' as content files.
Formatting Content Files
------------------------
Content files are formatted this way:
.sectionname
text to fill section
.end
.sectionname2
text to fill section
.end
.
.
.
where each section name is preceded by a '.' (period). Each
section is then ended with the declaration '.end'.
Formatting the Template
-----------------------
Templates are ordinary HTML files. To convert them to be used
with MERG, add the following tag:
replacing 'name' with an appropriate section name. (WARNING:
Names are case-insensitive.) These tags will then be replaced
by the equivalent section from a content file. For example, a
simple template file:
Simple
merged with the content file
.sec1
This is a test
.end
will produce an HTML file
Simple
This is a test
Testing MERG
------------
If you want to see MERG at work, run it. Included are two
files: a.tst and c.tst. Run MERG with this command line:
C:\> merg a.tst c.tst
This should spew out the following:
MERG Content-to-template MERGer v1.1, by Jan Michael Ibanez.
Built under mingw32.
Distributed under the GNU General Public License
Copyright Jan Michael Ibanez 2001
ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY provided. Report bugs and
feature suggestions to
Parsing template: a.tst
Processing file "c.tst" using template...
4 out of 4 matched, 3 default sections.
Done.
If it does, MERG is working. You should have a new file in the
current directory named c.htm.
Bugs, problems, and suggestions
-------------------------------
If you have any bugs, problems, and suggestions with MERG,
please email me at . MERG is
distributed under the GNU General Public License, see license.txt
for more information. Email me if you want a copy of the source
code.