$Id: README,v 1.3 1996/01/28 17:39:22 gdr Exp $ This is the README file for the describe package. This package is designated as version 1.0.3, and consists of the following utilities: describe v1.0.3 - show database entries describing the current status of programs descc v1.0.3 - the describe source compiler descu v1.0.3 - the describe source updater ABOUT DESCRIBE AND DESCC ======================== This is yet another project I've been sitting on for a while, but have finally decided to release. The basic idea of the 'describe' package (the descc "compiler" and describe itself) is to provide a quick, easy way of accessing information related to the utilities which so many different people are releasing these days. The reason it sat around on my harddrive so long is I was having qualms about its designated role in life. I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted it to do. Well, I've decided to KISS for now: descc simply compiles the utility list, which I maintain, into a (very) simple "database" located in /usr/local/lib/ [alternatively, the full path given in the environment variable DESCDB will be used, if it is set. sb]. The companion utility 'describe' is used to fetch information about a particular utility from this "database". descc is fairly limited, as is the "database" format itself. Part of the KISS (or it wouldn't be out now) design philosophy ;). Usage is simple: when you get a new listing (I'll provide monthly updates), simply "descc " where is the name of the newly released update. descc will simply write over the old database and replace it with the new. (Note: No appendages are allowed by descc. See descu.) As always, coments are appreciated. And, moreso than on other projects, I'd appreciate some comments about the direction I'm going in, suggestions as to where to take this, etc. I have a feeling that some fields in the format (eg, FTP:) are rather useless, and I'd like to know what you guys out there think. James Brookes jamesb@ecst.csuchico.edu ABOUT DESCU =========== I think describe and descc were really good ideas; they sure beat the text file list of Gno utilities that James used to keep. The one major shortfall I found was having to manually update the describe database source every time I wanted to include a new entry. I therefore wrote descu, the describe updater, which is also rather limited due to following the KISS principle. For completeness, I have also added the man pages describe.1, descc.8, and descu.8. I briefly pondered having a describe.5, but alas I was too lazy; you can find the file formats as part of descc.8. Devin Reade gdr@myrias.ab.ca INSTALLATION ============ You can either type "dmake install", or do the following: mkdir -p /usr/local/lib cp ./describe /usr/local/bin cp ./descc /usr/sbin cp ./descu /usr/sbin rm /usr/local/bin/descc You will also want to do the following, which is NOT done by dmake's install target: rehash descc ./describe.source CHANGES ======= This details changes to the entire distribution. v1.03 January 1996 descu now sorts entries correctly (longer entries ended up before shorter ones with 1.0.2, i.e. "calls" came before "cal") v1.02 October 1995 descc now circumvents a bug in ORCA/C's ftell() function. describe can now find entries that are not all lower-case. describe will now print the name of entries in the case they were entered into the database. descu now sorts the describe source file case-insensitive. describe and descc can now find the database in a path given by the environment variable DESCDB. If DESCDB is not set, /usr/local/lib/describe is used, as before. A new "Shell:" field has been added to the format of the database. v1.01 May 1995 Initial release for descu. Added -h and -v flags to describe and descc. Common defines and typedefs were extracted to desc.h. Descc now exits -1 on failure (vice 0). In descc, some more error checking and flushing were added. Also, mygets wasn't dereferencing one of its arguments properly. Allocated stack size was increased from 512 to 768 bytes. Describe and descc were modified not to be dependant on the size of integers. Ran source files through indent(1). v1.0 Feb 1994 Initial release for describe and descc. AUTHORS ======= The original describe and descc utilities and the describe format were written by James Brookes . The descu utility and v1.01 modifications to describe and descc were by Devin Reade . v1.02/1.03 modifications to describe, descc and descu were by Soenke Behrens . LEGALESE ======== The describe and descc utilities are copyright (c) 1994-1995 by James Brookes. The descu utility is copyright (c) 1995 by Devin Reade. These programs may be freely copied provided that the archive, including source files and this README, remain intact. Modified versions of these programs may not be distributed without the permission of the respective authors. Contact the respective authors for permission to include these programs on any commercial software collections. Permission is granted to Usenet sites and GEnie Information Services for inclusion in software archives. The Apple IIGS executable files distributed with this archive contain material from the ORCA/C Run-Time Libraries, copyright 1987-1995 by Byte Works, Inc. Used with permission.