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Subject:Converting ASCII text to SGML/HTML From:"Paul W. Wilson" <wilsonp -at- IS -dot- INTERNIC -dot- NET> Date:Thu, 13 Jan 1994 17:31:46 -0800
I am about to become involved in a couple of projects converting
ASCII text files to SGML/HTML for use with a WorldWideWeb (WWW)
server. I know of several products/methods that can help with
this project, but I wanted to ask if anyone knows of any hidden
pitfalls with these or of any better way to accomplish the
conversion.
The files that we will be converting are online in our gopher server
There are several hundred files but only about 15 MB. The products/
methods that we are considering for this project are:
1. TkWWW - a public domain SGML editor available from CERN. Scripts
can be used to search for patterns and insert tags.
Main advantage: it's free. Main disadvantage: I/We have to develop
the scripts, which means analyzing the data files and test the
results of the scripts.
2. FastTag - a product of Avalanche Development Co. We have just
obtained a demo version and will be evaluating.
3. FrameMaker - is supposed to be moving toward compatibility with SGML
but I think that may mean that it will be able to read SGML and
convert it to FrameMaker. Also, a new product from Frame,
FrameBuilder, is coming out that will be able to work with SGML (I
need to investigate this more).
4. SoftQuad Author/Editor - a WYSIWYG SGML editor. I have a copy
of an out-of-date version. Has anyone used this in a
production environment or tried the new versions?
5. Interleaf 5.0 - is supposed to be able to work with SGML, I've
seen the marketing lit but haven't seen Interleaf used in this
way. Also, I'm not impressed with Interleaf's ability to
handle ASCII files (I do know about this).
6. Word for Windows macros - available on the net, a set of Macros
to add HTML tags to Word docs. Has anyone used these or tried
to convert them for use on Macintosh?
Paul Wilson
wilsonp -at- is -dot- internic -dot- net
